Cold Runs Deep
by Dengirl
Summary: They say there's nothing colder than the Artic, they're wrong. Follow on from "Frozen"


**Chapter One**

Cold, there was nothing but the cold. It invaded every fibre, every nerve, muscle and sinew. Yet there was something colder deep inside, and it was driving him insane.

Was he a he? He really couldn't remember. He felt like a he.

The voices talked at him, not to him, whispering words that made no sense.

They spoke of ice and fire, they spoke of war. They spoke of blood and revenge, and power. They whispered of a distant frozen world, the need to return. They filled his blood, his soul with it, vengeance, blood, ice and fire.

***************************

The first thing he felt was something warm running through his veins, then he heard a voice.

"Okay, bring it up slowly, two degrees an hour, start the sedative..." and the voice began to fade.

Was he an it, not a he?

****************************

When he surfaced again, he felt warmer but that cold still sat in his soul. The next thing he felt was something restricting his breathing, obstructing his throat. He tried to claw at it with his hands, but they wouldn't do as his brain ordered. He let out a choking gasp, and a few seconds later a pair of hands placed themselves on his shoulders.

"Steady, you need to keep that in for now," a voice said gently.

He tried to focus on the face that belonged to the hands, but the face was blurry. Had his sight been damaged?

He almost panicked when he thought he was going to be left alone, with the thing still choking him. He did panic when the figure returned with what looked like a syringe.

"It's all right, it's just to help your muscles relax. Then we can take that thing out."

He followed the blurry figure, who placed the syringe against something, before returning to his head. "Give it time to work, then we can get rid of the thing, okay."

He wanted to stay awake, to keep his guard up, but he was so tired, and that cold still sat in his soul.

*****************************

The next time he woke, the obstruction was gone and he drew in a welcome breath. He was pleased he could feel his limbs again. Time to go. He had to get back.

He pushed himself up off the bed, his body protesting at too much movement. He placed his feet on the floor, and stood up. He wasn't expecting his legs to give way, and he fell, sending the drip he was attached to crashing to the floor.

He heard the voices again, and this time two pairs of hands pulled him up and lay him back on the bed. This wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to get back.

"Tell him he's awake," a voice said.

He really wanted to get out; he tried to get up again, but was stopped by a pair of hands. This time he didn't stay down. This time he lashed out.

*********************************

Jack hurried back to the SUV, leaving a bloody mess behind him. As he climbed in the passenger seat, his heart was racing, not because of the three mile pursuit of the now dead alien, but because He was awake.

It had taken his team twelve hours to find him and the two others. By the time he'd managed to get back, the Doctor was long gone, lost, disappeared.

They'd found the Doctor's TARDIS, and Jack had just about managed to fly it back to Cardiff. She seemed to be in distress, obviously feeling the loss of her Time Lord.

It had seemed like forever that she sat in the Hub storage level, silent, uncommunicative. Then one day, she suddenly powered up, and Jack felt something akin a mental kick in the shins, and he could swear he heard a voice say, "I've found him."

***********************************

Several hours later, Jack, his team, and a hand picked squad of UNIT soldiers were rampaging through a non-descript looking warehouse. Jack had grabbed who he thought looked like someone important, slammed him against a wall.

"Where is he, the specimen Simmons brought you!" he growled.

He pushed the cowed doctor in front of him, as the rest of the team rounded up the rest of the staff. He kicked a set of double door open and stopped, unsure of what he was seeing.

In front of him were rows and rows of cryo-units. His temper finally boiled over. He placed his gun to the head of the doctor. "Which one?"

************************************

The slow hiss of the unit seemed to grate of every one of Jack's nerves. If he'd been angry before, he was incandescent with rage after the unit opened.

He saw all through a red mist, every tube, every ounce of fluid that was pumping in and out of the person in front of him. He saw every scar, old nearly healed scars, and livid angry new scars.

"Clear this place out, then burn it," he heard himself say.

That had been three weeks ago, and his anger was still burning. He hadn't found the person he wanted to get his hands on, he was proving as slippery as the snake Jack knew he was.

**********************************

Gwen glanced over at Jack; he hadn't spoken since he got in the SUV. She'd thought he would be ecstatic that the Doctor was finally awake. Then she thought about what Martha had said, about how the Doctor may have been aware of what was happening to him. How she said they wouldn't have known about his tolerance for extreme cold. It was possible he had felt everything they had done to him, every cut, every biopsy they had done.

Gwen shivered, still unnerved by what he might have suffered. It would have driven her insane, so god knew what it had done to the Doctor.

They arrived back at the Hub, and were greeted by red emergency light, and a scene of chaos.

They both drew weapons, and stepped into the red tinged chaos. Paper was scattered everywhere, and laptops were lying smashed on the floor. They stepped carefully over broken glass.

"Med-unit," Jack hissed, and covered Gwen as she started down the steps. He quickly followed her, covering her back.

The med-unit was empty and medical equipment was scattered everywhere, and a pool of IV fluid glistened in the darkened room.

""Next level," Jack said, and this time went first.

He'd only gone a few steps when the sound of someone moving below echoed up the stair.

**Chapter Two**

Jack gestured to Gwen, who ducked back into the med-unit, whilst he melted into the shadows.

The sound of someone trying not to make too much noise came towards Jack and Gwen.

Jack tensed as the footsteps came closer; he waited until the owner of the footsteps had passed, before reaching out and wrapping a hand around the persons' throat.

The person turned out to be Ianto, who's muffled yell of surprise, brought Gwen out of hiding.

"What the hell is going on, and where is Martha!?" Jack demanded.

Ianto took a few seconds to gather his senses before speaking. "It's the Doctor, he tried to get up, collapsed, and we were trying to get him back into when he went nuts. He took Martha, they're down in the storage level somewhere. I was going to see there was any of that sedative from the last time, but I think that may have gone the same way as the rest of the supplies."

"Then we have to do it the hard way, we put him down, then ask questions."

********************************

Martha tried to keep one eye on the Doctor, and one eye on the door, her only means of escape. She could feel the bruise on her neck and shoulder already forming, painfully.

She hadn't expected the Doctor to lash out, nor have the strength to do so. Now she was trapped in a corner, with the Doctor crouched in the other, watching her warily.

She glanced over at a very familiar blue wooden box, silently wishing she could ask it for help, but it remained stubbornly silent.

She'd tried talking to him, but either the TARDIS translation circuits weren't working, or god forbid the Doctor had brain damage.

*******************************

He knew that the best way to get out of this place, was to have the advantage, and he wanted, needed to get out. He wanted no more pain, no more voices, no more cold.

So he had taken the female, as his bargaining chip. But now he was staring at her, why did she seem familiar?

He'd moved away from her, but had only allowed her to move to the opposite corner. He tried to remember, but there was nothing but the cold.

********************************

Martha watched the Doctor, could see he was studying her, a look of puzzlement on his face. She watched it change to what she called his 'why can't I remember' face.

She took a chance and spoke. "You know who I am, don't you?"

She stood up, and was glad to see the Doctor didn't react. She took this as a good sign, his natural curiosity was sparked.

"Why don't you come back to the med-unit, you must be cold," she said in her most persuasive tone.

She smiled disarmingly, and was rewarded by the Doctor standing up, and taking a step towards her.

She put her hand out, still smiling. "You'd like that, a nice warm blanket and a nice cup of tea."

Her smile broadened when his face brightened at the mention of tea. "A nice cup of Earl grey, maybe a chocolate biscuit."

*********************

He looked at the female, how could she know his favourite thing, and yet he couldn't remember her name, that smile was so familiar.

He pulled at his hair, and let out a frustrated cry. Why couldn't he remember? Why was there only the cold? He felt cold, so cold, and the female radiated warmth.

Something inside him whispered, "Trust her." He took a step forward, held out a trembling hand.

"That's it, closer, then we can go and find somewhere warm to talk," Martha said.

She smiled again, as the Doctor took another step forward, and reached out for her hand.

Then, everything fell apart.

*******************************

The door burst off its hinges, and Jack flew through, straight at the Doctor.

"Jack, no!" Martha cried, but it was too late.

Jack barrelled into the Doctor, who reacted with a feral snarl, and bit into the arm of the person trying to wrestle him to the ground.

**************************

He'd wanted to touch this female, feel her warmth. He reached out and was almost touching her hand, when the door crashed in, and another figure, a male, crashed into him.

He went down in surprise, but it was soon replaced by rage. He snarled his anger, and bit into the attacker's arm. But the other was too strong, and he was too weak, and he was overpowered.

The other male dragged him up, a painful grip around his neck, twisting an arm behind his back. The other was shouting, not at the female, but to another outside the room.

**************************

"Gwen! Cell, now!" Jack yelled, as he tried to hold a struggling Doctor. His forearm was stinging from the bite wound. He hissed his pain; the Doctor had actually drawn blood.

"Jack, what are you doing!?" Martha shouted, but he wasn't listening, occupied as he was with a now growling, almost feral Doctor.

"Ianto, get the hell in here and get Martha out!" he yelled. "I don't know how long I can hold him!"

The Doctor almost escaped his grip as Ianto entered the room, and pulled a protesting Martha out of the room.

"Gwen, you'd better have the cell open!" Jack yelled. He had to almost carry the struggling Time Lord out of the room, and had to savagely tighten his grip as he forced him down to the cell level.

Gwen stood at the open door of the nearest cell, hands over her ears, as the occupants of the other cells howled in unison with the Doctor's snarls and growls.

Jack had to physically throw the Doctor inside, and only just managed to lock the door, before the Doctor threw himself at the Perspex wall.

Jack looked in at the enraged Doctor, and at the Weevils that were now throwing themselves against their own prisons. He started to walk away, but Gwen pulled him back.

"You can't leave him here, not like that."

"Yes we can. I can't think down here, he'll be safer here than in the med-unit." Jack said calmly, and walked away.

Gwen took one last look at the Doctor, who was still throwing himself against the Perspex, and followed Jack, the howls of the Weevils and the Doctor ringing in her ears.

**Chapter Three**

Martha fumed as she waited for Jack and Gwen to come up from the cell level. She'd been getting somewhere, and then Jack had to charge in, all testosterone and muscle, and made matters worse.

She heard them coming up the stairs, pushed past Ianto, and the crack from the slap could have been heard in London.

"You had to charge in, never heard of looking before you leap. I nearly had him, he was coming round, now he's worse than ever. I don't think he'll trust me again, and he certainly won't trust you!" She stopped, having run out of breath.

Jack didn't seem fazed by the slap or the tirade. "Finished, good. How the hell was I supposed to know! I can't read the mind of a Time Lord, and neither can you! He bit me Martha, what could he have done to you!"

Martha went too say something, but her medical training overruled her anger. "Did he break the skin, let me look."

She grabbed hold of Jack's arm, and examined the wound. "Looks like he took a chunk out of it," she said, and pulled over a salvaged first-aid kit.

"Yeah, he spat it out, I hope." Jack hissed as Martha cleaned the wound. "Ianto, how's he doing?"

Ianto looked away from the screen. "Looks like he's calmed down at bit."

"How about the Weevils?"

"Not yet,"

"But why did they kick off?" Gwen said.

"They did last time he came in contact with them, must be because they're time sensitive, and he's about as time sensitive as you can get," Ianto answered.

"Maybe, who knows," Jack said. "All I want to know is how are we going to fix him."

Martha pulled tightly on the bandage, causing Jack to look at her sharply.

"Maybe if you hadn't rugby tackled him, we might be halfway there."

"I won't apologise, I was thinking of your safety."

"It's almost like his more primitive side has overridden his more logical side," Ianto said.

"You mean, cave-man Time Lord, instead of smart-arse Time Lord," Gwen said.

"Think about it, stuck in deep freeze for god knows how long, being poked, prodded and probably tortured. It would be enough to make anyone go off the deep end. He may just need time to adjust," Ianto said, before turning back to the screen.

"Well he was, until a Jack shaped bull rampaged through his china shop," Martha sighed.

Jack snatched his arm away from Martha. "Okay, okay, let him cool off for a while, then we can try again, but not on your own," he said to Martha. "Now we have to clean up this mess. Ianto, you keep on eye on the Doc, and keep trawling through the data we got from the warehouse."

***************************

The howls of the mindless things were giving him a headache, and the cold was drowning out what he was, or who he might be.

He looked over at the mindless things, and the cold inside him gnawed at his soul. It could feel the warmth of the mindless things, and he couldn't stop it.

It overwhelmed the spark that had been kindled, and all that was left was the cold.

***************************

Ianto sighed, thankful that the Weevils had stopped howling. It would make thing a lot easier, well less noisy. He'd been browsing the data files they'd recovered from the warehouse.

He was fast forwarding what looked like another god awful and pointless test on the Doctor, when something caught his attention.

He suddenly sat bolt upright. He'd nearly missed it, and rewound the tape. "What in the hell?" he breathed. He re-wound the footage again, just to be sure of what he had just seen.

He moved away from the desk and wheeled his chair over to the cell level monitor. At first he thought there was a fault with the camera, then his eyes widened in shock.

He pushed away from the monitor and raced up the stairs, and burst into Jack's office.

************************

Jack almost dropped the files he had just spent the last half-hour sorting, when Ianto burst into his office.

"Jack, cell level, now!" Ianto shouted before turning on his heel and racing out again.

Jack dropped the files, ignoring the papers scattering everywhere, as the urgency in Ianto's voice didn't bode well.

Ianto was at the first cell level door, before Jack had taken the first step down. He saw him start to enter the code on the keypad, only to pull his had away sharply, as if burnt.

"Is there a fire!" he shouted down.

As Jack reached the bottom, Ianto was trying to push the door back. "No, it's cold, freezing," Ianto shouted back, and persisted with the keypad. "Its frozen shut," he said as Jack joined him.

With a screeching protest, the door was pushed aside, and when they stepped inside, it was like they had gone through a wardrobe and into Narnia.

************************

The whole cell block was covered in a thick layer of frost and the cold air bit at their skin and their lungs as they drew breath.

"What the hell!" Jack said eventually, clouds forming in the air at his words.

Each cell was covered in a layer of ice, and inside each cell, a Weevil was frozen like a grotesque ice sculpture.

They walked towards the last cell in the block, and somehow Jack knew it would be empty. The Perspex front was in ice shattered fragments, and no sign of the Doctor. Jack and Ianto looked at each other, and the same thought crossed their minds.

"Gwen! Level Six containment. Lock it down!" he yelled into his comm.

He cut her off before she could ask why, and the hiss of the Hub sealing echoed around the Hub.

"I hope to god he's still in here," Ianto said.

*************************

It considered its new host; this one was infinitely more practical than the prison it had been trapped in for too only pleasure it had, was in knowing it had destroyed most of its enemy before they had imprisoned it.

It had lived on their warmth for over a millennia, but things eventually run out, and it thought it was going to die in its frozen prison.

Then it had felt the warmth of living things once more, and it had escaped its cell and its constant guards, in a new host.

This one burnt like the sun, and it would have consumed it, if it hadn't needed a host. Now it knew it had made the right choice, this host was faster, stronger. Yes, its higher brain had fought, and would have won, if it had not been weakened by the little things. They had hurt the host, and it had endured a cold prison once more.

When the host had been freed, it tried to fight again. It had nearly succeeded, when the female little thing had spoken to it.

But that had passed, and now the host did its bidding.

It hadn't liked the cold place that the host had walked along, it could feel the heat of life from above, but could not see it, nor touch it. Its host hesitated at a metal ladder, and it prompted it to climb.

Its host pushed the metal cover away, and climbed out onto the surface of this new world. It shuddered with excitement and ecstasy.

There was so much warmth and it was so very hungry.

**Chapter Four**

Jack kicked at the Hub door, which remained stubbornly sealed. The Doctor had escaped the hub before the lockdown.

He'd seen the footage from the warehouse, and guilt at getting himself shot back at the city fuelled his anger. He was glad now that he had torched the warehouse; he should have left them there to burn with it after seeing what they had done to his friend.

Even if they could get out of the Hub, he had no access to them. Most of them had been retconned, and the rest were buried deep within UNIT. He cursed himself for being so hasty with the lockdown because one, he really should have searched the Hub first, and secondly, UNIT would ignore any communication from them for the next twenty-four hours.

But he had a bigger problem than that. Something, and it had looked like a something, was using the Doctor as a host and it was loose in Cardiff.

**********************************

The first thing it wanted to do was feed, but it found its prey avoided its host. It accessed the host's mind and saw the reason why. These little things wrapped themselves in material to keep their warmth inside, and that the material the host was wearing was no good enough. It would have to remedy that, but where did these little things get their coverings, it would have to access one of the little things memories.

*****************************

The girl waved goodbye to her friends as she walked back towards the bus stop. She tried to hurry, but she'd stupidly chosen to wear new shoes, and now her feet were telling her told you so. She jumped when she heard some rustling in the bushes.

"Don't be stupid, this isn't a bloody horror movie," she chided herself and stopped to remove one of her shoes.

She dropped the shoe, and bent down to pick it up. As she stood up, she saw a pair of bare feet, then a pair of bare legs, and what looked very much like the hem of a hospital gown.

She stood up quickly, and took a step backwards, overbalanced and would have fallen if a hand hadn't reached out and grabbed her. For some reason she noted how cold the hand felt, but that was soon forgotten as her eyes travelled up to the hands owner.

"Hello," she smiled, despite the fact that he might be an escaped nutter, albeit a cute nutter.

He looked at her, tilted his head, and copied her smile. "Hello," he repeated.

"Have you wandered from Llandough Hospital, you really should go back, they'll be looking for you."

When he didn't move or reply, she sighed. She was always a sucker for a cute face. "Tell you what, why don't we find a phone, so they can come and get you."

She took his hand again, but this time the cold was more intense, almost like his hand was burning. She tried to pull away, but found his grip had tightened.

"Let go of my hand," she said and tried to pull it away, but to no avail. She blinked. Was she getting colder? Then she looked at her hand, and then she screamed.

***********************

Ianto hit the computer in frustration; he'd been trying for the last three hours to break the lockdown. He'd had Jack breathing down his neck for most of it, until he told him to go away in no uncertain terms.

He punched another set of numbers into the system, not expecting it to work, so he was totally surprised when the Hub door hissed undone.

"Yes!" he heard Jack's voice from somewhere below, and the clatter of feet announced the arrival of Jack, Gwen and Martha.

**************************

Martha, Gwen and Ianto waited by the Hub door for Jack, who'd disappeared into his office and had been gone for a few minutes. He returned, pocketing something as he walked down the steps. He picked up his sidearm on the way.

"Ianto, anything on the emergency channels?"

"Yes, there are reports of two frozen bodies being found, one near the waterfront, and the other, a security guard outside the Capitol Shopping Centre. The police are also looking for an intruder in the centre."

"Then that's where he is," Jack said. "Let's get gone," he said and led the way out of the Hub.

*****************************

As its host walked past the shops, it sucked the heat from them, leaving a trail of frosted windows and tiled floor. It wasn't what it needed, but it would suffice. It found the place it wanted and chose covering for its host. It looked in the mirror, that was better, now it could move freely amongst its food, and this planet was teeming with it.

***************

Jack swung the SUV round the corner and pulled up to the police barrier.

A uniformed officer stepped up to the vehicle. "Sorry, sir, but this area's been closed to the public."

"We're not public," Jack said, and flashed his ID. "Who's in charge here?"

"One moment, sir," the officer said, and walked off talking into his radio.

"Stuff this," Jack said and drove the SUV through the barrier, causing the officer to jump out of the way.

"Oi! You can't go in there!" he shouted, and spoke rapidly into his radio, and stared after the disappearing SUV.

**************************

Jack parked the SUV outside one of the delivery doors. The four of them piled out, looking round; expecting to see blues and two's any second.

"Right, we split up. Ianto, Gwen, take the top floor, me and Martha will take the ground. If you find him, don't approach, or let him touch you, just let me know. Okay?"

They all nodded, and waited whilst Ianto unlocked the door. They stepped inside and immediately felt the chill.

"He's here, alright," Martha said as she carefully made her way along the frozen floor. "What I'd like to know is if we can't touch him, then how are we going to catch him?"

"I've been thinking about that," Jack said. "This thing, whatever it is, feed on heat, right."

"So, we're going to freeze it out of him. I'm not sure there's a shop that sells stasis machines."

"No, we're not going to freeze it out. I need to find the control room," he said, and stopped to look at a map on the wall. "That looks like security central, the maintenance area is probably behind it." He veered off to his right, and strode off at a pace that Martha had to run to keep up with.

"Jack, what are you going to do?" she asked again after she caught up with him.

"I was thinking, this thing, it thrives on heat, right. But, the Doctor doesn't do to well at high temperatures. If I can trick it into thinking he's not so good a place to stay, it might leave his body, then we can freeze it, with this," he said, and pulled out a silver oval shaped thing.

"You do know that heatstroke could kill him?" Martha said.

Jack looked at Martha. "I know it could, but this thing won't work on flesh. I don't have a choice. Ah, here we are," he broke of the conversation, turning his attention to breaking the lock on the door.

They both looked up when a man's scream echoed around the centre.

"No, the police have found him!" Martha breathed.

**Chapter Five**

It had stepped out of the shop and had heard the sounds of the little things; it could feel the heat of them. It prompted its host to lean over the railings. Now it could see them too, even in the low-level lighting.

It felt something it hadn't felt in over millennia: the anticipation of the hunt.

************************************

Jack looked up as another scream was cut short. "I think he's found them," he said, and continued working on the lock.

Another scream rang out, and was cut short.

"We have to stop it," Martha said.

Jack let out a frustrated breath before speaking into his comm. "Ianto, Gwen, he's on your floor, you have to find him. Get him away from those police."

He waited for their reply, but another voice came over his comm. "Am I addressing the person who drove through the barricades?"

"What, get off my frequency," Jack growled.

"You have to leave the building immediately. We have a highly dangerous suspect trapped inside."

"You don't say," Martha said. "What do we do?"

"We're not leaving, I've almost go the lock," Jack replied.

There was an audible click, and the door sprang open. "C'mon," he said. "We have to heat this place up."

The voice spoke in Jack's ear again. "I repeat, leave the building immediately, or you will be arrested."

"Sorry, not in the taking orders business," Jack said, as he opened the door to the maintenance area. "Ianto, how you doing up there?"

"Not found him yet, but we're close. We've found three bodies, all frozen."

"Okay, be careful, we're working on something that might slow him down."

Jack looked at the huge bank of switches and levers. "Let's see, I think this is the right one."

He was rewarded by the satisfying whoosh of air being pushed through vents. "Now to crank up the temperature, let's see if you like this, icicle boy. C'mon Martha, he'll need you if this thing works."

****************************

It didn't register the rise in temperature at first, occupied as it was with the hunt. If it had blood it would be flooded with adrenaline. Its host, however, did, and it was proving to be very good at hunting.

It was only as it approached one of the heating vents that it noticed the increased temperature, and it began to draw on the heat to give it more strength for the hunt.

***************************

Ianto and Gwen heard the last scream before it was cut off. They veered off right, into a side part of the centre. They tried not to crunch the frost as they slowly made their way towards the location of that scream.

Ianto suddenly put a hand up and crouched down. "There, to the right," he said, pointing with his gun.

Gwen looked over and couldn't believe what she was seeing. A fellow officer was raised several inches of the floor, being held up by the Doctor. It wasn't the fact that it was the Doctor that frightened her; it was the sight of the officer's half frozen body, and the look of sheer terror and agony on his face.

Even from this distance, both Gwen and Ianto could see the vacant expression in the Doctor's eyes. Whatever this thing was, it had taken over completely, using the Doctor as its mobile shell.

"We have to get it away from the rest of them, and isn't it getting way too warm in here?" Ianto said.

Gwen nodded. "Yes, it is. I think I know what Jack is doing. Do you remember what happened when he was trapped in the Sahara that time?"

Ianto suddenly saw it too. "Yes, he can't take extreme heat for too long. Jack's trying to burn the thing out of him."

"Will it work?" she said.

"Only if it can be fooled into thinking the host is dying, which means it's going to get very hot," Ianto said.

"And it'll need another host," Gwen said.

*************************

It finally registered the heat when its host started showing signs of distress, and dropped the half-frozen officer. Why was there so much heat? It should be cold.

It was taken by surprise when its host staggered back, and was that sweat pouring from its skin? This wasn't right; its skin should be cold.

It tried to compensate, but found it couldn't. This host was beginning to fail. It could feel its host's hearts begin to falter; the temperature was beginning to get extreme. It needed a host before this one expired.

It didn't expect one to appear in front of it and shout.

***************************

"Oi, frosty, you don't look so hot!" Gwen shouted, ignoring the look that Ianto gave her.

The Doctor, or what was inside the Doctor, stared at Gwen, and she felt a sudden chill down her spine. She waited for it to make a move, knowing that she would have to rely on Ianto and whatever else Jack was planning to stop her from becoming its next victim.

**********************

It stared at the little thing that taunted it. It knew she was a female, not as strong as this host had been, but it needed a new body, this one was fading fast.

It had to use this host to get to the female, so it used precious heat to stimulate the muscles and nerves of its host. It felt its host straighten; its muscles tighten, and felt it lunge towards the female.

************************

Gwen ran, Ianto just behind her. They hadn't expected the Doctor to have the strength to chase them, but he did. The thing inside him must be desperate, using up precious energy to try and catch them.

Ianto spoke breathlessly into his comm. "Jack, we've got him, he's on our tail!"

Jack's voice came back, steady and calm. "Right, see if you can get him down to the first floor, we're by the door we came in."

"Got it," he said. "Gwen, first floor, delivery door six!"

He skidded to a halt and turned sharply left, following Gwen. He looked round, and could see the Doctor still following, although he wasn't as fast as he had been. This is cutting it fine he thought, and trying to run in the now Saharan type heat was starting to take its toll.

He flew down the shut down escalator, Gwen just a few feet ahead of him. He heard the Doctor stumble behind him, chanced a look, saw him getting up again.

He looked dreadful, drenched in sweat, his skin flushed, yet also a sickly pale colour. If this thing didn't give in soon, it wouldn't matter, the Doctor would die of heatstroke.

He moved once the Doctor started running again, and saw a glimmer of hope up ahead. In the distance he could see Gwen, now stopped, and Jack standing with some kind of device in his hand, Martha to one side.

"He's coming, and I think its working!" he yelled as he skidded to a halt.

*********************

Jack locked ahead; he could see the Doctor approaching, well the thing using the Doctor approaching. He could also see how sick the Doctor was. He didn't need to be a doctor to know that it was getting very close to going very wrong.

Steeling himself, he waited until the Doctor had stopped. All four of them jumped when the Doctor let out a cry of sheer agony, and something that looked like a cloud of ice and snow emerged from his body.

As it pulled from the Doctor it grew in size, expanding until it was at least ten feet in diameter. It hovered just in front of the now collapsed Doctor, pulsating slightly, almost like it was deciding who to pick as a host.

"Come on, ice boy, here's a nice fresh host!" Jack yelled and stepped forward.

The cloud seemed to draw itself upwards, and with shocking speed, flew towards Jack.

**Chapter Six**

Jack braced himself, waiting for the cloud to come closer. He waited, waited. He could see the others shifting nervously behind him, could see the collapsed Doctor.

He waited. The cloud was almost touching when he held the object up, but almost fell over when the cloud veered upwards and went straight through the wall.

They all stood for a few seconds, stunned at the sudden movement of the cloud, before Jack yelled, "After it, we can't let it find another host. Martha, Gwen, get the Doctor back to the Hub!"

He moved to retrieve the now useless object that had skittered from his hand. He turned back and froze.

In the now open door stood a dozen or so armed police officers, all yelling for them to put any weapons on the floor. Jack instinctively moved to the stricken Doctor, placing himself between the officers and the Doctor.

Two of the officers shouldered their way past the others. "Step away from the suspect!" one ordered.

"Like hell I will, he's not a suspect, he's sick," Jack growled.

One of the officers spoke into his radio whilst the other forcibly dragged Jack away from the Doctor and handcuffed him. A few seconds later, the other officers parted to let two paramedics through, wheeling a stretcher. Jack struggled against the grip the officer still had on him as the paramedics lifted the Doctor onto the stretcher.

"Jack, you can't let them take him, they'll kill him!" Martha cried.

Jack spoke to the officer who still had a hold on him. "Listen, my ID is in my left pocket. I'm begging you, don't take him to the hospital."

The officer looked at him, and then rummaged through Jack's pocket and found a leather wallet. He blanched slightly when he saw the contents.

"Wait!" he called to the two paramedics, who were just wheeling the Doctor out of the centre. He quickly undid Jack's handcuffs. "Sorry, sir, let them go," he ordered the others.

Martha elbowed the paramedic out of the way. "We have to go, now!" she barked.

Jack turned to the paramedics. "We need to borrow the ambulance. Gwen, stay here and help," he said, and helped Martha wheel the stretcher to the waiting ambulance.

Once the ambulance and the black SUV had sped off, one of the officers asked their commander. "Who the hell was that?"

"That was someone you don't want to cross," he replied and turned his attention to the dark haired women.

*************************

Ianto and Jack piled more ice into the bath whilst Martha kept an eye on the Doctor. She knew if they couldn't get his temperature down quickly, he could have a seizure, and she had no idea what it could do to a Time Lords' brain.

"That's all the ice we have, other than that it's the cryo-unit," Jack said.

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea, considering," Martha said. "Help me undress him, he has to be submerged for as long as it takes, but someone has to be in with him, in case he has a seizure. But you can only stay ten minute max each."

Jack and Ianto nodded.

"I'll go first," Jack said and slipped into the bath, with his back to the side, so that the Doctor's head was resting on his chest. He shivered involuntarily. The water was beyond freezing, yet he could still feel the Doctor burning against his skin.

"Come on, Doc, cool down already," he said as he took his second turn, and cringed when Ianto added more ice, god knows where he'd found it.

The Doctor shifted suddenly against his chest, and let out a deep sigh. His breathing started to return to normal, which was a relief, as it had been coming in ragged short gasps, and Martha assured him that his temperature was coming down to near normal, well to that of a human fever.

Jack was glad when she decided that he was out of danger, and spent the next half-hour in an overly hot shower.

He walked into the med-unit, cradling a cup of welcome coffee, one of Ianto's special coffees, with just a hint of something alcoholic. He sat and watched Martha busy herself with wires and tubes and machines.

"How's he doing?" he asked.

"Not out of the woods yet, I've no idea what sort of damage that thing has done to him. I'm sorry I slapped you, but I really was getting through to him."

"Yeah, but we have a bigger problem. That thing could have found a new host by now, it could be anywhere."

"I'm sure it'll surface, Ianto's monitoring the police radio, plus I think Gwen might chivvy them along," Martha said as she adjusted a drip.

Jack yawned suddenly and nearly dropped his cup.

"You should get some rest," Martha said.

"Is that doctor's orders?" he grinned, and yawned again.

"Yes, and no sneaky pretend sleeping, or I'll sedate you myself," she said with a mock stern look on her face.

"Yes m'aam, call me if he wakes up," he said, and wearily pushed himself up from the chair. He only just reached his bunk before sleep took hold.

************************

God, I feel so cold, he said to himself, am I still buried under the ice and rock. No, it wasn't that kind of cold, it was a metallic cold, and it was invading his body.

Panic rose unbidden, he tried to pull the wires from his arms, only to find he couldn't.

"No, no, no!" he cried. "Pleas, you have to, you have to…."

A voice, a very familiar voice spoke gently to him. "It's alright, you're safe."

The owner of the voice came into view…. Martha.

"Martha," he said in barely a whisper.

"Hello," she said, smiling.

She moved out of his vision, and he felt panic starting to rise again. "Martha!" he said more forcibly this time, and tried to move, but pain forced him down.

"Lay still, you've got some nasty bruising," Martha said, as she came into view, much to his relief.

"Don't want…this," he managed to say, and pulled at the oxygen tubes in his nose.

"Okay, but no moving," she said.

He lay still as she removed all but the IV.

"The drip stays, you're still dehydrated."

He nodded. "Martha, the city, collapsed, buried, how long?"He stopped talking, the rawness of his throat, making it hurt.

Martha didn't say anything, but her look told him plenty.

"The others, I couldn't..." he whispered.

"Ssh," she said. "I'll be back in a minute," she said, before moving off.

The Doctor lay still, but then he felt the familiar tickle of the TARDIS in his mind, then he remembered the power source.

**************************

Martha leant over and called into Jack's quarters. "Jack, wake up!"

He was awake in an instant. "What, is it the Doctor?"

"You'd better come up," Martha said, and disappeared from view.

Jack was relieved that the Doctor was awake, but concerned at what Martha was saying. "He thinks he was buried in that city?" Jack said.

"But that was months ago," Ianto said

"Could that thing have wiped his memory?" Jack asked.

"I don't know, it could have, or it could be the trauma from being in cryo for so long. It could be a combination of both, or it could be something else. I'm as much in the dark as you," Martha said, the frustration heavy in her voice.

"Perhaps it's best he doesn't remember," Ianto said.

"Maybe, no, god, I don't know." Jack ran a hand over his face. "I'll talk to him."

"Not now, Jack, let him rest," Martha said.

"Okay, then let's try and find that thing. Ianto, get Gwen on the line."

********************************

The Doctor slipped silently past the stairs that led to the central area. He could hear the murmur of conversation, but couldn't quite hear what they were saying. He would have got closer, even joined the conversation, but he could feel the pull of the TARDIS. In fact she was being rather insistent, tugging at the link between them.

He wondered if she could feel that power source, probably more so than him. It was out there somewhere, in the hands of either Simmons, or Rassilon forbid, someone who knew how to use it.

He winced, as the bruising on his back reminded him that he had lied to Martha, there was another thing he would have to apologise for, but not now.

He opened the door to the storage room, and smiled when he saw the blue wooden box. "Hello, old girl," he said, and then realised he didn't have a key. "Then again, who needs a key," he said, snapping his fingers.

****************

All three of then jumped when the alarm went off.

"That's storage area three, the TARDIS," Ianto said.

"No, no, he can't be!" Jack yelled, and raced down the stair, followed by Martha and Ianto.

As he reached the door, he heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS engines. He flung open the door, just as the TARDIS was disappearing. "No, no, not again!" he cried.

**Chapter Seven**

Jack's shock gave way to anger. "Phone, give me your phone!" he snapped at Martha.

He snatched the phone out of Martha's hand, and pressed the speed dial. The phone rang for what seemed an eternity. "Come on, pick up, you stupid ass," he hissed angrily.

********************************

The Doctor listened to the phone ringing, tried to ignore it. Eventually it grated on his nerves, and he snatched it from its holder. "What!" he snapped. "Bit busy, things to do, places to go."

"You get your skinny ass back here!" Jack yelled.

"Sorry, got a power source to track, a bad guy to catch, gotta go."

****************

"No, wait!" Jack said. He thought quickly, desperate to keep the Doctor on the line. "Don't you want to find out about the thing that escaped the city?"

There was a long pause at the Doctor's end, and Jack feared he might have put the phone down.

"Thing, what thing?"

**********************************

Jack stepped back as the TARDIS began to re-materialise. He hadn't expected the Doctor to take the bait, but he's heard the curiosity in his voice.

The TARDIS door opened, and the Doctor stepped out. "Thing, what thing?" he said again.

***********************************

"We think it came back with whatever Simmons took. What was it?" Jack said.

The Doctor didn't reply, and studied the grainy CCTV still of a white ice-flecked cloud.

"So, it flew off when you pointed this at it," he said, picking up the object. "Can't say I blame it, you really shouldn't have one of these," he said, and it disappeared into one of his bottomless coat pockets.

Ianto went to protest, but Jack shook his head. "So, what do you think it is?"

"Haven't got a dickie bird, I've come across a few ice based creatures, but this one is new to me," the Doctor said.

He straightened up, took up his usual stance of hands in pockets. "Is that the real reason you wanted me back?" he asked eyes boring into Jack's.

"Yes," Jack lied, and he knew the Doctor could see through the lie.

"So, it needs a living host, and it feeds on warmth. What happened to the last host?"

Jack hesitated. "Being treated in hospital, but he's going to be okay. Gwen's with him now, but we haven't had any more reports of frozen bodies."

The Doctor gave him a sideways glance. You're a very good liar Jack Harkness, but it doesn't fool me.

"So it might not have found another host yet…or it's found a more tasty heat source. Do you have access to a thermal imaging satellite?"

*********************

The area glowed red on the screen. "There, if I was a heat loving, hungry ice cloud, that's where I'd be heading," the Doctor said and tapped the screen. "Where is that?"

Ianto checked the co-ordinates. "I don't believe it, that's only fifty miles from the city ruins, but there was nothing there when we scanned it."

"Well there is now," the Doctor said. "Does it have a name?"

"Only a native name, it roughly translates as Cold Runs Deep."

The Doctor and Jack raised an eyebrow at the translation.

"Then that's where I'm going," the Doctor said.

Jack stiffened. "Oh, no, not on your own, if you go, we all go."

Both Jack and Ianto were surprised when the Doctor didn't argue. "Okay, but it says here that it's owned by a private company, doesn't say who."

"Give me a minute," Ianto said, and tapped at the screen. "It's owned by…" his voice trailed off.

"Who owns it?" Jack asked.

Ianto glanced at Jack, then at the Doctor. "It's owned by Gen-Med," he said quietly.

***********************

The Doctor drew in a sharp breath at the name. He'd tried hard to forget that name, but sometimes his dreams were plagued by it. He turned away from the screen, and walked off, head down.

He nearly collided with Martha, who just managed to dodge out of his way.

"What's with him?" she said, and then she saw the name flashing on the screen. "Oh, I'll go and find him," she said, turned to go, but Jack took her arm.

"No, leave him, he's not going anywhere, not now. Ianto, get me all you know about Gen-Corps artic interests."

*******************

The Doctor had stared at the name on the screen. Those words had been seared into his soul, a mixture of guilt and hate and misery. If they were involved, then he wouldn't leave until he saw them wiped from the face of the planet. A flash of memory washed across his mind, a burning warehouse, a man in a white coat, all his…

"Doctor, are you all right?" a woman voice broke through his memory.

He opened his eyes, and found a concerned Gwen looking back at him.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" she said, obviously unaware of what had gone on in the Hub.

"I'm fine," he said and went to move away.

"You don't look fine, I think you should sit down," she said and pulled over a chair.

"I'm fine, really I am," he said, although his body wasn't giving truth to the lie.

"You're trembling, please sit down. I'll get Martha, if you like?"

"No," he said, a little too sharply. "No, I'm okay, just some water perhaps, still a bit dehydrated," he continued in a softer tone.

Gwen smiled at him. "Water it is, then, but sit down, yeah."

He didn't move, but kept eyeing the stairs to the TARDIS. All he wanted was to hide inside, away from Torchwood, alien threats and his memories.

"Come upstairs, it's warmer," Gwen said, handing him a paper cup.

He resigned himself to there being no escape, he would have to face this demon, whether he wanted to or not.

****************

"Look who I found out of bed," Gwen said, as she accompanied the Doctor into the central hub, frowning when she saw the concerned face looking at them.

"Gwen, a word," Jack said, nodding towards his office.

"Its alright, you don't have to spare the Time Lord's feelings," the Doctor said, and sat down next to Ianto.

"Here, let me," he said and ran the sonic over the screen. "There, that should do it."

"What's going on, Jack?" Gwen asked.

"Our friends at Gen-Med are back, they must have been the ones that hired Professor Simmons."

The Doctor snorted. "Professor, hired killer more like. Ooh look, a finger in every pie, even UNIT pie."

Martha started. "What, let me see, they'd never."

"Oh, there's a lot you don't know about UNIT Martha Jones," the Doctor said darkly. "But is this the serpent's head, or just another set of fangs. So, who's up for trip to a little place called Cold Runs Deep?"

The Doctor looked round the console room; it hadn't been this full, not since…… He cut off that particular train of thought, that only led to remorse.

"Right, I've landed us a few miles outside their security perimeter, so I suggest you help yourself to the artic gear in the wardrobe. I'm sure you'll find your size," he said, and waved a hand in the direction of a door that had appeared in the TARDIS wall.

Jack waited until the others had disappeared into the cavernous wardrobe. He wandered over to the railings and leant casually against them. "So, Gen-Med," he said.

The Doctor didn't look up, but Jack could see his hand tighten around the green coloured paperweight he was twisting. He didn't speak, but continued fiddling with the dials and levers on the TARDIS.

Jack sighed. If he wasn't going to talk, then he wasn't going to talk.

A few seconds later the rest of the crew returned from the wardrobe.

"I know at least a dozen women and men, who would kill for a wardrobe like that," Gwen said, buttoning up her jacket.

"Right then, everybody ready. I'm afraid it's a bit of a blizzard out there. So everybody stay close, no wandering off," the Doctor said and opened the TARDIS door.

*********************

Martha shivered inside her jacket, even though it was wrapped tightly around her. She was still marvelling at how the Doctor and Jack could walk around in just long coats and light clothing underneath.

She could just about see the figure of the Doctor ahead, striding out like it was a walk on a sunny beach. Another blast of icy wind threatened to knock her over, and a swirl of snow almost blinded her. She forced her head up, and panicked.

She was alone!

**Chapter Eight**

"Okay, just stay put, the Doctor will find you," she said aloud, if only to give herself a false sense of safety.

She turned sharply, when she thought she saw something in the corner of her eye. Then she heard a scuttling noise behind, even over the wind.

Was it behind her? No, it was to her right. No to her left? No, there was more than one.

She hesitated. Should she move and risk the chance that they were movement-orientated, or stand still and risk that they weren'?

The scuttling continued around her, and then she felt something brush against her leg. She fought to control a shudder, and something chittered, which was taken up by how ever many there were out in the blizzard.

Then something brushed against her again, and she felt a sharp pain. She let out an involuntary gasp, and the chittering turned to hissing, and this time she ran.

The hissing turned back to chittering and the scuttling became much faster.

***********************

Martha ran, looking straight ahead, trying to run in the deepening snow, the scuttling and the chittering getting closer.

She suddenly cannoned into something, and instinctively lashed out, and was rewarded, not with the sound of something in pain, but a person.

"Oww! You're just like your mother, Martha Jones!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"Doctor! Oh, my god, there's things!"

"I know, I want you to keep going, straight ahead, there's a small cave about half a mile ahead. Keep straight and you won't miss it. Don't look back, no matter what you hear, understood," the Doctor said into her ear, as the wind picked up in intensity.

"But," she started to say.

"Understood, Miss Jones," he hissed in a steely tone she hadn't heard him use before.

She nodded and started to move off. She heard the chittering again, followed by the sound of the sonic screwdriver, and then the sounds were lost in the wind and the snow.

***************************

Jack peered out into the blizzard, from the shelter of the small cave. They'd been walking at quite a steady pace, when the Doctor had stopped suddenly, turned, tilted his head to one side, as if he could hear something.

Then he was all action, pushing the others ahead of him, and then stopping suddenly.

"Where's Martha?"

After that it had been a bit of a blur, the Doctor had herded them in sheep dog fashion into what turned out to be a small cave at the bottom of a huge ice shelf. He barked a stay put order, and before Jack could stop him or follow, was gone into the whiteness of the blizzard.

Now he was peering worriedly into the blizzard, he could hear the sounds of the wind, and perhaps in the distance the sound of waves crashing against icy cliffs.

He tensed when he saw a figure emerging from the whiteness, and relief flooded him when he saw it was Martha, stumbling towards him.

"Thank god he found you," he said, drawing her into a hug. "But where's the Doctor?"

Martha pulled away from the embrace. "He told me to go, don't look back, there were things."

"To hell with staying put, Gwen, look after Martha," he said and stepped out into the storm.

************************

The Doctor moved to his right as an almost invisible shape rushed past him. He had no intention of getting first hand experience on how sharp those teeth and claws were, but he really didn't want to kill these creatures either. They looked like nothing he'd ever seen, a mismatch of several alien species, he might have been able to recognise, if they were not twisted in some grotesque way.

He dived and rolled away, as it made another run past him, the blizzard was making it hard to see an attack coming, and luck would only hold out for so long. He'd given up using the sonic, they seemed unaffected by it. Now he was just relying on his wits, he had to give Martha enough time to get away.

He was just getting to his feet, when there was a hiss barely a foot from him, and as the creature silently came out of the snow, he knew his luck had run out.

**********************************

Jack followed Martha's footsteps as best as he could, the snow was already covering them. He'd gone about half a mile, when he heard the chittering and the hissing. At first he couldn't see anything, and then there was a lull in the wind, and the snow it drove.

Then he saw a scene that chilled his blood. The Doctor was crouched in the snow, eyeball to eyeball with something. All Jack saw was teeth and claws, and an overlarge set of jaws.

**********************

The Doctor had taken a gamble, and had stared directly into the eyes of the creature. His aggressive move seemed to have worked, if only to produce a stalemate, it would at least give him time to figure out how to escape.

He suddenly sensed someone behind him, and then he heard the sound of a weapon being drawn. The creature's eyes flicked away from the Doctor's at the sound of the weapon being drawn, and the spell was broken. Its eye flicked back to the Doctor, and he saw his death reflected back.

The creature let out a loud hiss and sprang.

The retort of the weapon echoed around the Doctor, and the creature was taken off its feet, and disappeared back into the snow.

The hissing of its fellow creature increased, and the sounds of something being torn apart filled the air.

Jack's voice rang out over the sounds. "Run!"

The Doctor didn't hesitate and took off from a sprinter's start, following the blue shape that was Jack. He could hear the sounds of the creatures behind them; they were turning their attention to the live prey that was running away.

A chorus of hisses gave both of them a surge of adrenalin, and the entrance to the cave came into view, and with the creatures snapping at their heels, they dove into the entrance.

Both of them bent over, hands resting on their knees, drawing in welcome breaths of fresh, if cold, air.

The Doctor straightened up first; he allowed his vision to settle before looking around. "Jack?" he said, looking around again.

Jack held up a hand. "A second," he gasped.

"Jack?" the Doctor said again. "Jack, where are the others?"

**Chapter Nine**

"What do you mean, they're right here," Jack said, straightening up and looking around. "But that's impossible!"

The Doctor said nothing, only looked round, a dark look on his face. "They've been taken, the ground's all scuffed."

Jack crouched down on his haunches. "Are you sure, it could have been those things."

"No, I think they need the snow for hunting, besides, no blood." The Doctor pointed to a certain patch of ground. "Those are Martha's prints, and they look like Ianto's and Gwen's, but those," he pointed to a jumble of prints at the cave entrance, "those belong to someone wearing military issue boots."

Jack looked at the jumble of prints, and wondered how the hell the Doctor could see that.

As if picking up on Jack's thoughts, the Doctor crouched down next to him. "Spend enough time with Native Americans and South American tribes, you learn a trick or two."

"Do you think it was Gen-Med?" Jack asked, straightening up.

The Doctor stood up and looked out into the blizzard. "We can't go after them, not until this storm's past," he said, avoiding once again Jack's question. "We outran those things once, I don't think we can do it again."

*************************

Jack kicked the cave wall in frustration. All he could see was snow, and all he could hear was the wind howling.

"There's no point in doing that, stay at the back, I'm not too sure those things can't reach in and grab you," the Doctor said from the back of the cave.

Reluctantly, Jack moved away from the entrance, and sat next to the Doctor, letting the heat from the rocks the Doctor had superheated chase the chill from his bones. "So, do you think Gen-Med made those things, and took the others?"

The Doctor stared into the red hot rock, lost in thought for a moment."Those things are twisted in ways I can't even imagine, well, I can imagine, but I'd rather not. And yes, they probably did take the others. Those things were probably just sent to separate us."

Jack let out a breath. "Separate the pack from the alphas, weaken it. Those bastards's are going to pay."

"Oh, they'll pay," the Doctor said in a tone that made Jack look directly at him.

The Doctor's eyes were almost black, even in the glow of the stones, and Jack could see only chaos and retribution, the Oncoming Storm was brewing.

"But until this storm passes, we can't move. Get some sleep, Jack," the Doctor said, his eyes back to their normal brown.

"Okay," Jack said, and lay down, trying to make himself as comfortable as one could on icy ground, wrapping his great coat around him, and was soon asleep.

The Doctor moved away from Jack, and stood at the entrance to the cave. He stared out into the storm, but his thoughts were dark, very dark.

*********************

Gwen had cursed their captors until she was hoarse. They'd appeared out of the snow, all weapons and aggression. They'd tried their best to fight back, but they were overpowered, and dragged away.

Now they were in separate cells, able to see each other, but not talk. It seemed like hours before the door to the cells opened, and two men stepped in. Gwen recognised one of them from the cave, but not the other.

"Well done, Simmons, he will be pleased. He says to recall the pack, give them a safer route. He wants them alive, especially the one called the Doctor."

"And the others?" Simmons asked.

"When we have them, he says to throw them to the pack, except Mr. Jones, he'll be useful. He said to bring him to the lab."

***********************

Ianto found himself shoved into a well equipped lab. In a small enclosed room, someone was working. He was pushed into a chair and handcuffed.

The person working in the other room came out, and Ianto saw the person's face for the first time. He stared in disbelief, and he felt sick to his stomach.

"Hello again, Mr Jones."

***********************************

Jack shifted in his sleep; he was dreaming someone was poking him. He only started to wake, when the poking turned painful.

"Wake up, Jack," the Doctor's voice invaded his sleep. "The storm's blown over, and the creature are gone, time to move."

The pair stepped out of the cave into a glaring white landscape.

"Okay, which way?" Jack said, shielding his eyes against the glare.

"Just a sec," the Doctor said, taking out his sonic screwdriver. He fiddled with it for a few seconds, and when a steady beeping started, he began walking. "This way," he said.

They walked across the frozen ground, and Jack could now see the cliffs that he'd heard waves crashing against. He became nervous when the Doctor went perilously close to the edge of the cliff.

"This isn't right, not right at all," he muttered. He let out a sudden sound of frustration. "This isn't the power source, it's a false trail," he growled.

He was silent for a few minutes, his brow furrowed in concentration. The beeping of the sonic gradually changed to an incessant warbling, and he was off in the opposite direction, with Jack following a few steps behind.

They walked for a good few miles before they came to a vast expanse of crevasse filled snow.

"O-k-a-a-y," the Doctor said slowly. He looked over at Jack. There was a silent agreement between them, and they started to cross.

**************************

Ianto tried the door, but it was definitely locked and they'd left nothing in the room he could use as a lock-pick.

He'd had time to think about what it meant, seeing that face again. The thoughts that ran through his head made him feel nauseous, dredging up memories that he had tried hard to forget. Vivid pictures flashed through his head, it was not something he wanted to relive. But if this person had his way, he would again. For once he really hoped Jack and the Doctor wouldn't try and rescue them.

**************************

Martha was relieved when Gwen was shoved in her cell. She was being driven to distraction from the pain in her injured wrist, and some company would take her mind of the pain.

"Thank god, are you okay?" she asked.

Gwen nodded. "A few bruises, nothing serious. How about your wrist?"

Martha looked at her left wrist, which was badly bruised and swollen, and was now starting to get really painful.

"I think it's broken," she winced as she tried to move it.

"Let me try and help," Gwen said, and began tearing strips off her thermal jacket, fashioning a makeshift sling.

"Is that better?" she asked, as she finished adjusting the sling.

"Much, thanks," Martha said.

"Those bastards could have treated it," Gwen said.

"Somehow, I don't think we're very high on their list of things to do. I think we just bait," Martha said.

"What for, you mean Jack and the Doctor," Gwen breathed.

"Think about it, Gen-Med are world leaders in genetic therapy research, and Jack's immortal and the Doctor's an alien who can regenerate. They'd be the geese that laid the golden eggs. Gen-Med could make million from them."

Gwen was silent for a moment. "But if we're just bait, why did they take Ianto?"

Martha frowned. "I don't know."

*************************

The Doctor grabbed hold of Jack's hand and pulled him across a rather large fissure in the snow. He was getting increasingly frustrated; his temper was starting to heat up.

At first it had been easy to jump across the small crevasses, but as they progressed, they were becoming wider and the ground under their feet was becoming less stable.

He felt the snow shifting under his feet as he pulled, but it wasn't the ground beneath his feet that collapsed, it was the ground that Jack landed on.

He tightened his grip, but the ground gave way too fast, and Jack's hand slipped from his grasp. "No!" he cried as Jack disappeared in an avalanche of snow and ice.

**Chapter Ten**

"No!" the Doctor cried as he saw Jack disappear, and then the ground disappeared from beneath his feet.

He twisted to avoid a large chunk of ice, whilst desperately trying to see where Jack was. He didn't however see in time the chunk of ice that connected with his temple, and blackness descended.

**********************

The last thing Jack had heard was the Doctor's distressed cry, and the last thing he had seen was the horrified look on the Doctor's face. After that, there had been nothing but ice, snow and rocks and blackness.

The next thing he knew, life was rushing back into him, painfully. He struggled to remove a large chunk of ice off his legs. He got painfully to his feet, brushing snow off himself.

"Doctor!" he called, expecting to hear a reply, albeit distant.

Then something shiny caught his eye, it was the sonic screwdriver, and it was right next to what remained of the ground they'd been standing on. He scanned the ice slide, and saw the one thing he didn't want to see. A hand barely showing, halfway up the slide.

"Doctor!" he yelled and scrabbled up the ice and began pulling ice, rocks and snow away.

"Doctor!" he yelled again, and was heartened when the hand twitched. He doubled his efforts, and gradually the top half of the Doctor appeared.

Jack had to stop, as his hands were numb from handling so much snow and ice. A low groan preceded the Doctor shifting suddenly, causing a fresh lot of ice to start falling.

Jack leapt forward, grabbed the Doctor by his free hand, and pulled. He kept pulling, even when his legs threatened to give out.

The ice surrounding the Doctor was creaking ominously, and snow was beginning to trickle into the space made by the Doctor moving and Jack pulling.

Gathering the last of his strength, he heaved the Doctor free, dragging him as far as he was able, away from the ice. The compacted ice and snow gave a long low groan, and collapsed in on itself, in what would have been certain death and an icy tomb for the Doctor.

Using the last of his strength he turned the Doctor over, and hissed in a breath. A large bloody gash ran from the bottom of his left temple and up into his hair, which was already matted with dried or drying blood. He had no way of telling how long he'd been dead, or how long the Doctor had been under the ice.

He grabbed a handful of snow. "Sorry, but this is going to be cold."

***********************

The Doctor's head felt like someone was using it as their personal drum kit, and they were playing it in a freezer. He opened his eyes slowly, but they didn't want to focus, and wherever he was it was bright, very bright, painfully bright.

He shifted slightly, which elicited a groan of pain, as his body angrily told him not to do whatever he did again.

A fuzzy shape appeared in his line of vision, and as his eyes focused, the blur became the concerned face of Jack.

"Hey, welcome back," Jack said.

"Did the sky fall on my head?" he asked.

"No, just half a glacier," Jack answered, glad to see the Doctor was still corpus mentis.

"Oh, that's okay then," the Doctor said and sat up, shaking his head. "Feels like the sky fell on me."

He looked round and frowned. "This doesn't look like the inside of a crevasse, it's man-made."

"Yeah, as if that isn't the biggest coincidence," Jack said.

"Come into my parlour," the Doctor said.

"Yeah, but who's the spider, and who's the fly," Jack said.

"Oh, I'm the fly, a big nasty blue bottle, swimming in the ointment," the Doctor said grimly. "Shall we see how big the spider is?"

*************************

Ianto sat in the room, no cell, albeit a tastefully decorated cell. He'd given up trying the door, after he'd been told in no uncertain and painful terms to leave the door alone. He thought about the words the man who'd supervised the beating had said, about how he would soon be too occupied to worry about a door.

That he thought could only mean one thing, and he could only hope that when it did happen, it would be quick and relatively painless.

***************************

Gwen's temper was at boiling point, just as Simmons and two guards entered the cell area. "You bastard, get someone to see to her wrist!" she yelled, banging on the glass wall. She stood back as one of the guards entered, levelling a weapon at her.

"You move back," he growled whilst the other guard approached Martha.

Simmons stepped into the cell. "I can see why Captain Harkness recruited you. I can see you're itching to take a chunk out of me."

"I wouldn't waste my time. I won't have to when they see what you've done," she spat.

"Oh, I think not. If I were you, I'd be worried about what's going to happen to you. Bring Miss Jones," he ordered.

************************

"If you think hurting me is going to change things, you'd be wrong," Martha said as they dragged her along the corridor and into a laboratory.

"Brave words, Miss Jones," a voice said. A man was standing behind an operating table, dressed in scrubs, wearing a mask. "I don't think we've actually had the pleasure of meeting in person, Miss Jones, or should I say Dr. Jones. Although you may have seen some of my work, somewhere a lot warmer than here, say Nevada."

Martha's eyes widened. "No, it can't be, we saw…," but her words were cut off by Simmons placing a hand over her mouth.

"He does surround himself with such spirited companions. I do believe they will be an asset to my research," the man said as he reached for a syringe.

******************

"Definitely man-made," the Doctor said. "These have be cut by laser, not formed by water."

He skimmed his fingertips over the wall; there it was, that power source, faint, but definitely there. It still seemed to be calling him, like a whisper on the breeze…. No wait, that was a breeze, it was ruffling his hair and……

"What is that smell!?" Jack said. "Smells like rotting flesh."

"It is, we must be near those creatures' lair, or kennels," the Doctor said. "So I think a little quiet might be good right now."

The tunnel opened up into what could only be described as a killing ground, carcasses and bones of what may or may not have been of Earth bound animals lay scattered across the ground.

The Doctor surveyed the area. There was another smell, one that was unique, nothing else like it in the universe, the smell of human decay.

He made a disgusted sound. "They've been feeding them people."

They walked amongst the jumble of bones and flesh, Jack trying his best to keep his stomach in place. At the far end of the carnage was a concrete wall. They both looked over and down.

"It's a killing pit, or a fighting pit," Jack said.

"It's barbaric," the Doctor said, and before Jack could react he'd vaulted over the side and into the pit.

"What are you doing?" Jack hissed, looking round nervously, expecting either angry, hungry creatures, or angry humans.

*****************

The Doctor walked amongst the jumble of human bones. "So many," he whispered. Had they been dead before they were thrown down here, he could only hope. Any thoughts he'd had of being lenient, were burnt away with every bone he found.

He was about to turn away and climb out of the pit when he thought he heard voices."Help us," the voices echoed faintly from a dark corner of the pit.

The Doctor stopped, turned back. The voices had said the two words that tempered even the black rage that was boiling away in his soul.

Jack saw the Doctor move back towards the wall, and relief flooded him. But it was only brief, as the Doctor stopped, turned, and tilted his head to one side, very much like a dog hearing something far away.

"Doctor, come on!" he said urgently.

"Jack, you'd better come down," the Doctor said, his back still facing Jack.

"What, are you insane, get out of there!" Jack said.

The Doctor didn't move an inch. "No, Jack, you really need to come down."

The tone of the Doctor's voice made the decision for Jack, and he dropped down into the pit, trying not to land on any remains.  
He joined the Doctor. "What's so important?"

The Doctor put a finger to his lips, and then Jack heard the faint voices.

"Help us, please," they echoed again.

"Where's it coming from?" Jack whispered.

"There's a grille in the corner, it looks just big enough for us to squeeze through," the Doctor said, moving forward, sonic in hand.

**************

Jack dusted himself off, as he waited for the Doctor to push himself down the short very narrow passage, that separated the grille in the pit from the one he'd just exited.

The smell wasn't any better down here, as now it was mixed with the smell of unwashed bodies, fear, and other odours. They Doctor's face said everything; it was mixture of disgust, anger and disappointment, the human race, still the biggest monsters of all.

They walked along the short tunnel, and they came across a scene that wouldn't have looked out of place in a medieval torture chamber.

Jack heard the Doctor take in a sharp breath, then he heard him say, "This is so going to stop."

But what scared him was the look on the Doctor's face. It wasn't full of indignant disgust: it was blank, cold, and inhuman. Jack truly believed from there and afterwards that Death had entered the room.

**Chapter Eleven**

The smell of what lay in front of then finally made Jack lose control of his stomach, and he turned away, emptying what little there was.

The Doctor didn't turn away, but his face had paled, and a muscle twitched along his jaw.

There were several benches, and laid out on them were things that may have once been human, but were now bloody, twisted, nightmare versions of humanity.

He looked up and over the benches, trying not to see the blood and ichor soaking the wood and the ground beneath. Then he saw the lines of cells, and he nearly, but not quite lost his temper.

******************

The cells at a glance held about twenty people, and Jack counted at least a hundred cells, not counting any that might be beyond his line of sight.

"God, how many are there!?" he breathed.

The Doctor remained silent and continued walking along the cells. He was searching for the ones that had called for help. As he walked along the cells, he would stop outside one and stare in, but the occupants would back away as far as the space would allow them.

Their eyes had the look that he'd seen in a thousand faces, on a thousand different worlds. Their eyes were empty; all spark of spirit quenched by some unknowable horror.

He was about to move away from one cell, when a voice came from the back.

"Can you help us?" a female voice said.

He turned to face the cell, and stepped closer. "Do you want me to help you?" he asked.

A figure pushed through the others. It was a girl of about sixteen, although that was guess, caked as she was in dirt and god knows what else, clothes hanging in shreds around a very underweight frame.

"We all want to be helped, those of us that can still think for ourselves," she said. There was slight accent in her voice, the Doctor couldn't quite work out where she came from.

"I can help you, what's your name?"

"Don't tell him, he could be working for them, he could be a converted," an older man said, throwing the Doctor a scathing glare.

"He don't look like a converted," the girl said. "He doesn't talk like one. My name is Maria."

"Hello Maria, I'm the Doctor, and I can help."

There was a sudden buzz around the cell.

"It can't be him, they said he died in the fire, he must be a copy"

"We should tell him to go away. I don't want to be converted."

"Shut it, all of you," Maria said. She looked back at the Doctor. "Let me feel your face."

The Doctor went to lean against the bars, when Jack pulled him back.

"What are you doing?" he said, pulling him away from the cell.

"She needs to feel my face," the Doctor said.

"And you were going to let her, just like that. How have you survived for nine-hundred years?"

Jack turned back to the cell, and went as close to the bars as he dared. "Why do you need to feel his skin?"

"I need to know if he's real, not a copy. Copies are cold, they have no warmth," Maria said.

"Copies, you mean androids?" the Doctor said.

Maria didn't reply, but looked suddenly to her right.

There was the sound of doors being opened, and the familiar chittering hiss of the creatures from above.

"The guards, you have to get away!" Maria said in a hushed urgent tone. "There's a chute at the end of this row where they dump the dead bodies, hurry!"

*********************

Martha came too back in her cell, Gwen anxiously sitting by her. Her hand no longer hurt, but her spine was agony. She reached round, and to her horror found a large pad on her lower spine. Judging by the pain, she'd been the subject of a lumbar puncture.

She tried to struggle up, but found the pain too much, and collapsed back down again.

"Here, let me help," Gwen said.

Martha pushed herself up again, and with Gwen's help managed to sit with her back against the cell wall.

"How long have I been back?" she asked.

"They brought you back about an hour ago, I guess. I suppose I'll be next," Gwen answered.

"Gwen, there's something you need to know, something impossible."

Gwen sat back in surprise. "That's not possible, he's dead, we saw the body."

"Well, it was him. I didn't need to see his face to recognise that voice. I only heard it once, but that was enough."

"Martha, we can't let him get his hands on the Doctor, not again. I don't think he'd survive that again." Gwen said in a soft voice.

"I know, but we can't do anything stuck in here. We're bait, and the Doctor will walk right into the trap."

************************

The chute was not a pleasant journey, the smell and the un-identified goo and gunk would stick to their clothes for weeks. But it proved Maria wasn't lying, even if they did land in the equivalent of a mass grave.

They made their way as quickly as possible out of the mass of bodies and other things. The Doctor could have sworn he saw things moving about in the rotting flesh and bones.

They stepped out of the chamber into a well lit, better maintained corridor.

"We must be in the base proper," Jack said. He sniffed at his sleeve, pulled a face and tried to wipe his hands on a cleaner part of his coat.  
He looked up at the Doctor, who hadn't spoken since the cells.

"Hey, you still in there?" he said, waving a hand in front of the Doctor's face.

The Doctor didn't react for a few moments, then blinked and let out a long breath. When he did speak, it was in quiet, very controlled tone.

"Jack, I want you to promise me something."

Jack looked at the Doctor, not liking the tone of his voice, or the words.

"I want you to promise me one thing. However this ends, I want you to save as many of those people as want to be saved, and get the hell out."

"What, why?"

"Because I'm going to wipe this place of the face of the planet."

The Doctor said the words in such a quiet, neutral tone, that Jack could do nothing but nod dumbly. He didn't know how to argue with that tone of voice, best to leave it and ride the train until you could pull the emergency chord.

With that the Doctor walked off, striding out, reminding Jack very much of a predator searching for its prey.

*********************

Maria watched as the guards dragged one of her cell mates out by his hair, knowing already that he would fold under the slightest pressure.

She had to get out, get out and find the Doctor, find him and warn him.

**Chapter Twelve**

"Hey!" Maria shouted after the three guards. "He's too old for his experiments, he won't last five minutes, take me as well!"

The guards stopped, looked at each other. He hadn't specified how many subjects he wanted, so one more would hurt, and if he didn't want her, then they could have a little fun.

They dragged the man back with them to the cell, opened it and reached for Maria. They didn't expect her to shove the other prisoner back towards them. The man stumbled into the creature that was being held by the third guard. It hissed its annoyance, and snapped at the man. His screams were soon drowned out by the cries of the other prisoners.

The prisoners in Maria's cell saw freedom and surged forward en-masse, knocking the guards over in a tide of human water. Maria took her chance, and ran for the same chute the Doctor and his friend had taken. She closed her eyes, and dove feet first into the chute, trying not to think of what she was sliding on.

She landed with a wet thud, opened her eyes, and found herself eyeball to rotting eyeball with a corpse. She let out a cry of disgust and scrabbled away from the rotting corpse. She was about to move towards the door when something slithered from behind the corpse.

*****************************

The Doctor and Jack were just about to open another door when the muffled scream echoed down the corridor.

"That's coming from the disposal room!" the Doctor said and took off before Jack could react.

"Never learns," Jack said and sprinted after him.

********************

"C'mon, c'mon," the Doctor hissed as he held the sonic against the lock. He cursed himself for locking it after they'd left.

Another scream increased his impatience, and he was through the door before it was even half open. A new noise was filling the air; something wet was moving.

He rounded the corner and saw a wormlike thing with multiple mouths, then he saw the girl it was moving towards. As he skidded to a halt, the worm turned its head at the squeaking of his converses on the floor.

The girl screamed again, and it turned its head back towards the sound. It must be blind, he thought, relying on sound location.

The girl finally saw the Doctor, and he put a finger to his lips, and then deliberately kicked a bone, making it skitter across the floor.

The worm swivelled its head, mouths opening and closing, revealing rows of jagged teeth. He was right, it was sound sensitive. That was going to make things very difficult, and he had no idea how fast the thing was.

Slowly and as quietly as possible, he inched his way towards the girl, and within snapping distance of those multiple jaws.

*******************

Maria was surprised to see the Doctor. She almost called out to him, but he put a finger to his lips. She nearly called out when he kicked a bone. Then she saw the worm swivel its head towards the sound, and saw what he was doing.

She saw the Doctor move slowly towards her, trying to be a silent as possible. She held her breath and froze to the spot, as he came close, very close to those mouths.

******************

The Doctor was nearly within grabbing distance of the girl, and within biting distance of copious rows of teeth.

Then the silence was broken by Jack, who came bursting into the room and skidding round the pile of flesh and bones. This caused the girl to cry out, and the Doctor to jump.

The worm's head snapped round and brushed against the Doctor's sleeve. One of the mouths, well, its teeth extended from its mouth, catching the Doctor's arm, and closed.

The Doctor cried out as teeth tried to find flesh and bone through the thick material of his coat. Both Maria and Jack cried out in alarm. Jack closed the gap and tried to reach for the Doctor's arm, but another set of teeth barred his way.

The Doctor let out a pain filled gasp, as the teeth found flesh, and alarmingly the worm began to retreat into the mass of rotting corpses, taking the Doctor with it.

"No, Doctor!" Jack yelled and tried once more to reach for him, but still those jaws kept him at bay, and the worm was now almost back inside the pile of bodies.

************************

Maria had frozen in fear as the worm grabbed hold of the Doctor. She'd flinched when he cried out in agony the first time. But the second time he cried out and she saw the worm trying to drag him into the morass of flesh, something inside her snapped.

She felt round, her hand coming to rest on a thigh bone, whether it was human or not, she didn't care. With a snarl of rage, she hefted the bone and ran at the worm.

"Let him go, you bloody stinking freak!" she screamed, landing a solid whack on the side of the worm's head.

The mouths that didn't have the Doctor in its grasp hissed in pain and annoyance, and several snapped at Maria. Gritting her teeth she hit it again, and this time the worm shuddered, dropping the Doctor as it did.

Jack moved, grabbed the Doctor, and dragged him out of the reach of the mouths. Maria hit the worm again, and with one more pain-filled hiss, it disappeared inside the pile of bodies.

*****************************

Maria felt the anger drain from her, and she dropped the still decomposing bone on the floor in disgust. She looked over to where the Doctor's friend had dragged him and moved over to stand next to them.

"Is he going to be okay?" she asked, her voice a little shaky from the adrenalin rush.

The man who had dragged the Doctor away didn't reply. He was too busy tearing away the ruined coat and jacket sleeve underneath. The Doctor hissed in pain as Jack tore the material away, revealing a row of puncture wounds oozing blood.

The Doctor looked up as Maria approached, and smiled weakly at her. "That was very brave, thank you, Maria."

Maria offered a nervous smile back, and knelt down beside him."Can I help? she asked Jack.

Jack finally looked up, gave her a thank you smile. "Sure, you can make a bandage out of this," he said, handing her a piece of clothing he'd found, not wanting to think about who it had belonged to. "It isn't the best thing, but it'll have to do," he told the Doctor.

"We can't stay here," Maria said. "The guards will figure out where I've got to, and they shoot first."

Jack looked back at the Doctor, and began rapidly wrapping the make shift bandage round the wound. "You alright to move?" he asked.

The Doctor nodded, flexing the bandaged arm. "Yes, we need to get through that door we found. I've a nasty feeling it's where we need to be heading."

All three of them looked up when the now all too familiar hissing echoed into the room.

"No, they've found us already!" Maria cried, as the shouts of humans joined the hissing of the creatures.

Jack helped the Doctor up, and they moved to the door. Guards and creatures, who were straining at their leashes, were approaching from both sides.

They were trapped!

**Chapter Thireteen**

The three of them hugged the wall as the guards came closer to the open door.

The Doctor turned to Jack. "Take Maria, hide, just watch out for that worm. I'll distract them," he whispered.

"I don't think so," Jack whispered back, and ran out of the door. "Hey, you want to pick on someone, pick on me, not a girl!" he yelled.

There was a startled silence, and then gunfire.

********

"No!" the Doctor's cry was lost in the gunfire. He moved towards the door, but was dragged back by Maria, who was stronger than someone her age and size should be. "Let me go," he snarled as the gunfire ceased, trying to pull away.

"No," she hissed, tightening her grip on his arm. "If we get caught, then he died for nothing."

"Let..me..go," he growled in a low dangerous voice.

"Doctor, I won't let you go. Now ssh, the guards might not hear you, but those creatures might."

As if to prove her right, the shadow of one of the creatures fell on the mass of bodies, and it stepped through the door.

Maria pulled the protesting Doctor further into the room, and even in his frustration at not being able to stop Jack, he wondered why she was so strong.

The creature scuttled around the first corner, stopped and hissed. It shook its head and retreated, even it wouldn't tackle the thing that lived here, not alone. It scuttled out of the room and back to its handler.

"She's not in there, bring the body with us, the boss will want to see it, he always needs fresh bodies," a voice said.

There was the sound of a body being dragged, and the footsteps of the guards, and the hissing of the creatures faded away.

***************************

"I'm sorry about your friend," Maria said.

The Doctor wrenched his arm out of Maria's grip and stared hard into her eyes. "You're not even human," he said harshly. "How can you understand, you're just an android."

Maria sat back. "How did you know?"

"I just do," he snarled, standing up. "You're on your own, I have to find Jack."

"Please, I can help you," she said.

"I don't need your help," he said coldly.

Maria stood up and grabbed his injured arm, causing the Doctor to hiss in pain. "Do you think I wanted to be in that cell? I was in there because I questioned my creator. You of all people should know better, not all of us follow our creator blindly."

"Not my problem anymore, all I want is to find Jack, before they cut him up." The Doctor made to turn.

"You won't get very far, you have no idea of what security there is," Maria said.

"Don't tell me, you do," the Doctor said, the sarcasm heavy in his voice.

"I'm an android, I had access to all the schematics of this place, I know exactly where they'll take your friend."

The Doctor ran his hands over his face and sighed. "Alright, but if you're lying to me, don't expect any mercy," he warned.

Maria smiled. "I know, my creator also has extensive records on you Time Lord, believe me, I wouldn't dare lie."

The Doctor's face softened. "You're right, I should know better. You were in there because you asked question. Good girl, better to question than follow like a sheep. You said you knew where they would take Jack."

****************

The guards' dragged Jack's body into the laboratory.

"What is it?" the man working at the examination table said.

"Found an intruder, sir, thought you might want to look at him, before we feed him to the pack."

The man turned and smiled when he recognised the body. "Don't feed him to the pack, leave him here, put him on the other table. Was he the only one you found?"

"Yes, sir," one of the guards said.

"Tell Mr Simmons to do a full sweep of the complex, this man rarely comes alone."

"Yes, sir!" The guard snapped a salute, and gestured to the other guards, who lifted Jack's body onto the table, then left with their superior.

The man let out a small laugh and picked up a syringe. "Can't have you wandering off when you come back," he said. "Where's your friend, you usually come as a pair."

********************

Ianto had heard sounds of distant shouting and gunfire. Was it a rescue attempt, or a failed rescue attempt? When the door opened, he hoped it was a rescue attempt.

His hope was dashed when Simmons walked in with two guards. "Time to go Mr, Jones."

************************

Gwen and Martha had been on high alert since they'd heard shouting and multiple gunfire coming from the grille in the floor of their cell.

"Sounds like trouble," Martha said. "Hopefully, it's a Doctor and Jack shaped trouble."

"But it's a trap!" Gwen kicked the glass in frustration. " I wish we knew what they were doing with Ianto."

****************

Jack came too with a gasp, and found he couldn't move, dear god, was he paralysed.

He heard footsteps, and found he could move his head. He turned and took in a sharp breath.

Ianto was laid out on an examination table, various wires and IV's attached to him.

"Ianto, no!" he said.

The footsteps came closer, and a face loomed over him, and he thought he was looking at a ghost.

"Hello, Captain, can't say it's a pleasure seeing you again. I do hope you've brought the Doctor along. He is after all my property."

Jack couldn't say anything, the shock of seeing that face again, hearing that voice.

"What, surprised to see me alive. I have a little secret, but that's for the Doctor to know."

"What.." Jack began.

"What am I doing with Mr Jones? I thought that after the debacle of last time, it might be helpful if Mr Jones was a little more co-operative this time."

"You can't…"

"But I can. I lost a lot of profit, it's time I got my money back. But I wouldn't worry, I doubt you'll be worrying about anything soon."

The man turned to another person. "Take samples, but be very careful, and have the OR readied for surgery, my property will soon be returning."

Jack wanted to move, he so wanted to reach out and snap the neck of the man, who was now removing wires and needles from Ianto.

"Wake up, Mr Jones, that's it, nice and slowly. Tell me, Mr. Jones, who are we waiting for?"

"We're waiting for him," Ianto said.

"And who is he?"

"The destruction to my chaos, the fire to my match."

"Good, soon he'll be back with us, and then you can burn whatever you want."

*********************

Maria led the Doctor towards a set of double doors. "The main complex and my creator's laboratory are above. The only way to get to them is through the holding cells, they should be empty, most people are kept below."

She pushed the doors open and the Doctor stepped through and stopped. In what Maria said should be empty cells were two very familiar faces.

"Martha, Gwen!" he cried, and ran towards the cell. He placed the sonic against the lock, but nothing happened. He tried again, but with no success. "Dead locked!" he shouted, frustration in his voice. "And it's soundproof."

He saw the two women mouthing something, but he couldn't make it out. He did, however, see Martha's damaged hand, and his face clouded. "I'm sorry, I can't," he said, and backed away. "Maria, where are the controls for the locks?"

"Same level as the labs. Everything is controlled from the main lab, my creator trusts no-one."

"I think it's time we met your creator," the Doctor said.

He moved off, but Maria hung back, an apprehensive look on her face.

"C'mon," he said, moving off again, but stopped when she still didn't move.

"I can't," she stammered. "My programming, it won't let me."

The Doctor moved back and faced Maria. "Maria, you're more than just programming. If you were, you would never have questioned your creator, you're so much more," he said softly.

"I want to, Doctor, but I can't move my legs," Maria said.

"Fine, then listen. I'm going to find Jack and Ianto, then I'm going to find your creator, and you'll never be a slave to your programming again."

The Doctor turned back towards the cell, where Martha and Gwen were still standing against the glass. "I know you can't hear me, but I'm going to find the lock and get you out," he said. He turned away, walked to the door at the other end and disappeared through it.

*******************

Maria stared after the Doctor. She felt helpless. All her strength, all her intelligence and she couldn't even make it past a stupid door!

"I can't let it stop me, it's only programming. He's right, I'm more than a bunch of circuits."

She tried to take a step towards the door, heard her servo-motors grinding in protest. She forced them to obey her and she took another step, and another, and another. She fought the conflicting instructions in her core.

"I'm coming, Doctor," she said.

*********************

The Doctor went through the door, not quite sure of what he would find. He'd been loathe to leave Martha, Gwen and Maria. Someone was going to pay.

The corridor he walked down was suspiciously quiet. He didn't need to see the cameras that followed him, he could feel them. He tried the door at the end, it was locked, he looked directly into the camera over the door.

"I know you're watching, so if you can hear me, here's the deal. You let the others go, and the people in the cells, and I'll walk away. You only get once chance, if you know all about me, then you know the consequences."

There was an audible click, and the door sprang open. Every part of him knew it was a trap, but he stepped into it anyway. He found himself inside a pristine laboratory, but his focus was drawn to the person lying on an examination table.

"Jack!" he said, and moved quickly to his side. He checked his pulse, thanked Rassilon he was still alive, and conscious.

"Doctor, it's a trap," Jack rasped.

"I know," he said.

"No, it's…"

The sound of the doors opening behind him, and the footsteps of booted feet cut off Jack's words.

Then he heard a voice, one that made his hearts quicken, and his stomach tighten.

"Welcome back, Doctor."

He turned slowly. It couldn't be; it wasn't possible. Then he saw him…….White Coat!

Something inside him welled up, an un-controllable, white hot rage. He forgot about Jack, Martha, everything, and with a snarl, lunged for White Coat.

He never reached him, as a dart embedded itself in his chest, and seconds later he dropped like a stone.

**Chapter Fourteen**

Jack watched helplessly as the Doctor was dragged out of the lab. He knew exactly what was going to happen, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

All he could do was curse. "You bastard, come back here and do that when I can move!"

He was surprised to see the door open, even more surprised to see the girl from the prison level, Maria. She was walking very slowly, was she injured?

As she approached, he went to speak, but she put a finger to her lips and pointed at the camera. She moved over to a keyboard and tapped for a few seconds.

"There, now we can talk," she said, moving over to a table and picking up a syringe full of blue liquid. She turned and saw the look on Jack's face."It's to counteract the paralysis," she said, and injected the liquid. "It will take a few minutes to work, so be patient," she said. "We're safe here, for now."

"They took the Doctor, we have to…" he rasped.

"Don't try to talk, give it time. If he's taken the Doctor, it will be to his private lab. I don't have access, you need a card."

After a few minutes Jack felt life coming back to his muscles, and he struggled up. "Maria, isn't it? Who has a card?"

"My creator, his assistant, and his head of security, Simmons," she replied.

Jack thought for a moment. "I heard him say that Simmons was to do a security sweep. This card, does it open the cells as well?"

"Yes, it's access all areas, but we'll never get it."

Jack got off the table, his eyes hard, jaw set. "Yes, we will."

*******************************

The Doctor's eyes snapped open, still black with rage. "Let me out of these things!" he roared, causing the assistant to jump and drop the tray of instruments he was just setting down.

It also drew the attention of White Coat, who moved into view. "Must make the sedative a bit stronger. No matter, there are things to be discussed."

"You should be dead, the virus," the Doctor said quietly.

"Oh, you did kill me, well a version of me. Do you honestly believe you were the first thing I cloned? I'm a great believer in practice makes perfect."

"A clone, I killed a clone," the Doctor said in a stunned voice.

"Oh, absolutely, very cleverly done. I'm so glad you didn't succeed in killing yourself."

"I won't let you do that again to me," the Doctor spat.

"I don't see that you have a choice. Besides, I believe I hold all the aces, co-operate and I'll let your companions go, don't and my creations will feed well."

The Doctor looked at White Coat. "How can I trust your words, you could be a clone, and they may already be dead."

"Then you'll have to go on my word, not that you have a choice. So choose, their lives for your submission."

"You really don't want to let him out, things have changed."

"Choose, Doctor, their lives, for the return of what I consider your better half."

The Doctor closed his eyes for a few seconds, opened them. "You know I can't refuse. Just do it, and live with the consequences."

*************************

Jack held up a hand to stop Maria, who he noticed was walking better. He peered round the corner, spotting the solitary guard.

"Damm, there's no cover, I can't get to him," he whispered.

"Let me," Maria said, and slipped round the corner.

Jack heard her call to the guard, and a few minutes later, he heard the thud of someone hitting the floor. He chanced a look, and saw Maria walking back, the guard's weapons in her hands. He looked over at the prone body of the guard, no, not prone, very, very dead body of the guard.

Maria saw Jack's look of concern. "Not human, I'm an android. Is that a problem?"

"No, travel with the Doctor long enough, nothing surprises you," he said. "Now, let's go find Mr Simmons?"

*****************************

The man in question was just coming out of the lab that Jack and Maria had recently vacated. "Find him, find him now!" he growled.

Simmons stalked off, he had to tell White coat in person that Captain Harkness had gone. He wasn't a man that was easily frightened, but White coat scared him in ways he didn't like.

He let himself through the door that led towards White Coat's labs. He'd only taken a few steps, when an arm snaked round his neck, and he felt cold steel against his throat.

"I knew I was right not to trust you," the voice of Captain Harkness hissed. "I'll have your pass card."

Simmons went to reach for his card, and suddenly twisted, wrenching himself out of Jack's grip, and ramming an elbow into his mid-riff.

Jack staggered back, and when he straightened he found himself facing Simmons, who had drawn his own knife.

"If you want my pass, you'll have to kill me for it. So, how bad do you want it?" he snarled and lunged at Jack.

Jack tried to duck under the swipe of Simmons's blade, but he wasn't quite quick enough. He felt the knife bite into his arm, but instead of recoiling as an attacker thought you would, he turned it into an attack, raking his blade across Simmons's shoulder.

Both had draw first blood, now the fight was on in earnest.

Jack cannoned into Simmons, sending the man's knife skittering across the floor. Both of them grappled for the remaining knife, hands slick with each other's blood.

Simmons suddenly faltered, and Jack pushed his advantage and inched the knife closer and closer to his opponents' chest. For a few moments Simmons pushed back, but his hand slipped and the knife buried itself in his chest, Jack's full weight behind.

Simmons gave a final shudder and was still, leaving Jack as the victor. He sat back, chest heaving with exertion, he dropped the knife, letting it clatter to the floor. After a few minutes he regained his senses enough to search Simmons's body. He found the pass card, and something that looked like a credit card. He slipped both into his pocket, and wearily stood up, and made his way back to Maria, who was staring in horror at the fight that had taken place.

"Now, let's go get us some reinforcements," he said, wiping the blood from his hands.

***************************

Careful now, clamp that blood vessel, I don't want any damage. Well done, the chip please, gently, hold it there," White Coat instructed.

"There, it's done," he said, as he sealed the incision. He felt a thrill of excitement, he had his prize in his grasp once more. He'd thought he'd lost it, but who would have thought an alien invasion would bring it back within reach.

He looked at the face of his patient, a face he never thought to see again. "This time, I intend to keep you. You won't be slipping my leash again. Bring him round slowly, and don't let him persuade you to take these restraints off," he told the assistant, and turned to leave.

The door to the OR suddenly burst open, and if White Coat was surprised, he didn't show it.

"Well, well, Captain Harkness, and the two Miss Jones's. I assume you acquired your pass from Mr Simmons. Never mind, his usefulness was at and end, you saved me a messy job."

"Shut up, and get those restraints off him," Jack snarled, his gun and Gwen's levelled at White Coat's head.

The assistant looked at White Coat, who nodded and continued staring at Jack.

Jack frowned; no, he wasn't looking at him, he was looking behind him.

A muffled cry of alarm and the feel of cold steel against his neck, along with a quick glance at Gwen, told him their advantage was lost.

"Put the gun down, Jack," a familiar voice hissed.

"Ianto," Jack breathed. "What are you doing?"

"Not following your orders anymore," Ianto said.

"Well done, Mr Jones," White Coat said as the guards disarmed Jack and Gwen and dragged Martha into the room.

White Coat was about to speak, when a soft groan came from the operating table.

"Ah, he's coming round, this should be interesting. Care to join us, Mr Jones."

Ianto moved past a still stunned Jack and stood by the head of the waking Doctor.

He gently stroked the Doctor's hair. "That's it cariad, come on," he said, in a tone that suggested a closeness that shouldn't be.

The Doctor opened anaesthetic hazed eyes. "What……" he whispered.

Then his eyes cleared, and with viper quickness his hand shot out and grabbed Ianto's wrist.

"Pretty boy!" he hissed.

**Chapter Fifteen**

"Pretty boy!" the Doctor hissed.

Ianto didn't flinch but tightened his grip on the Doctor's hair, painfully tight.

"Bastard!" the Doctor snarled.

"Enough!" White Coat said. "We have more important things at hand."

The Doctor sat up and turned to look at White Coat. Jack, Martha and Gwen drew in sharp breaths. The Doctor's eyes were black, and the smile that played across his face was colder than the Arctic.

The Doctor's eyes fell on Jack. He was up in an instant and reaching for him, a feral snarl twisting his features. He never touched Jack as Ianto suddenly cried out and fell to the floor clutching his chest, breath coming in ragged breaths.

"I said enough!" White Coat roared, holding a small device.

There was silence as the Doctor moved back to Ianto and helped him up. The look that both men gave White Coat would have cowed many men, but White Coat seemed unfazed.

"You do not make a move on the prisoners until I say so, is that clear?"

The Doctor glowered at White Coat, made to move again, but Ianto collapsed again.

"I told you I wouldn't let you slip my leash this time. Disobedience causes pain, repeated disobedience cause death. Is that clear?"

The Doctor looked like he was going to lunge for White Coat, but he lowered his head and stared at the floor instead.

"Good, then perhaps you and Mr Jones can escort Captain Harkness and friends down to the prison level. If you want to play, perhaps Mr Jones can entertain you by feeding the pack."

**************************

Maria cowered behind the door of the cupboard next to the lab. She'd heard everything, heard the change in the Doctor's voice. Her creator had done it, changed the Doctor into one of his twisted creations.

"No, I can't let this happen, he can't, not him. I have to stop," she whispered. "I can stop it, I can."

She fingered the card that she had managed to steal from Jack's pocket, not the pass card, the other card. Where she was intending on going, she wouldn't need a pass.

"Time for a change," she said, and slipped quietly out of the cupboard, and away from the nightmare that had been created.

*********************

"So, this pack, we're not talking about fluffy poodles and chihuahuas?" the Doctor asked as the walked behind the little group of prisoners.

"No, more like a wolf pack on steroids," Ianto answered.

"Are we feeding them to it?" The Doctor nodded towards Jack.

"No, he wants them for something else," Ianto said. "But there's plenty to choose from down below," he said quickly, seeing the Doctor's face turn sullen. He knew his orders. Keep him happy; keep him leashed.

He was relieved when he saw the Doctor's face brighten, and glad when he was distracted by Martha suddenly stumbling in front of them. She tried to right herself, but fell to her knees, crying out when she landed heavily on her bad hand.

Jack went to help, but was pulled away by one of the guards, and received a ringing blow to the head for his trouble.

"Get up Martha Jones," the Doctor growled, and when she failed to comply, he grabbed hold of her injured wrist and pulled her up savagely.

She tried not to cry out, but the pain was too intense, and it seemed to spur the Doctor onto more cruelty.

"Would you like me to break your other wrist, just to make sure you won't fall again, or perhaps I should forget orders, and feed you to this pack?"

Ianto stepped between Martha and the Doctor. "You don't want to do that. Tell you what, let's get them locked away, then we can watch the pack hunt, if you like. There's lots of other things they can hunt, things that will last longer, put up more of a fight. What do you say?"

The Doctor looked at Ianto, then at Martha. He slid a sly look at Jack, who saw something that was at odds with the words that were coming out of his mouth.

The Doctor gave a theatrical sigh. "Fine, but only if you…." he leant over and whispered in Ianto's ear.

*************************

Jack had seen something in that look the Doctor had given him as he was shoved into an already crowded cell. He knew what it was. "You're playing a dangerous game, Doc," he whispered, as he watched the Doctor walk away.

He turned away, and pushed he way to where Gwen and Martha were sitting at the back of the cell. Indecision warred inside him, should he tell them. He decided not, the ruse would be more convincing if they thought he was insane.

He crouched down in front of Martha, who was nursing her injured wrist. It must have cut the Doctor to the quick to hurt her like that.

Martha looked up, tears glistening in her eyes. "It's not fair, he was better, Jack, he was better. Now he's just…" she sobbed.

Jack put a hand on her shoulder and wished he could tell her, ease her hurt.

Gwen sat next to her, her face an unreadable mask. "He does that again, I'll kill him, your friend or not," she said.

Jack looked up sharply at her and saw that she meant it. "You won't have to. I'll do it myself," he said, hoping he lied convincingly.

*****************************

The Doctor growled low in his throat, and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He growled again and launched himself at the figure on the other side of the bedroom.

Some time later the Doctor slipped out of the bedroom, leaving an unconscious Ianto, hoping that he would stay that way for long enough. He felt a wave of distaste rise in his throat like bile. He could keep this act up indefinitely if he had to, but it didn't do much for the fragile state of his friendship with the others.

He'd hope he'd been convincing enough. It was better if they were away from what had to be done.

The revelation that the White Coat he had killed had been a clone filled him with a sense of dread. Usually he could spot a clone, but these ones were very, very good. He had no idea if this one was another clone or the real deal.

So he had to play the game, no matter the cost. The cost to him had been a small part of his brain, no cost at all really. The real cost was Ianto, and that didn't sit well with him, not at all.

****************************

The guards didn't even notice the girl as she walked towards the bank of elevators. Why should they, their implants would have told them she was just an android, a non-entity.

What they didn't know was that she knew what was on the lower levels.

There were things that shouldn't even exist, and there were things that were waiting to escape. Then there were androids, imprisoned in the bowels of the base, waiting to be dismantled, or hunted, or fight each other in the arena.

She fingered the card in her pocket, and as she descended through the levels, she thought of the Doctor, she thought of Jack.

"I can do this," she said as she stepped out of the lift, and into a different world.

***********************

The Doctor had gotten so used to having to slip past people. It was quite a change to actually see people virtually climbing the corridor walls to avoid him. Word had obviously spread, which in this case worked to his advantaged.

He stopped outside the door that led to White Coat's private labs, placed the card that he'd found in Ianto's pocket in the door, and swiped. The door however didn't open; he frowned, took the card out, wiped it on his coat and tried again.

This time, the door beeped obligingly and clicked open. Cautiously he opened the door, not sure what godawful things he would find behind it.

He was about to close it, when an alarm rang out. He looked round, expecting to see guards rushing towards him, but a voice rang out above the alarm.

"Alert, breach on Sub- Level Six, all available guards to Sub-Level Five. All personnel, please return to your stations and remain there!"

"Someone's causing trouble," the Doctor said and closed the door, and ran straight into White Coat.

**Chapter Sixteen**

The guard held the rifle against the Doctor's chest, pinning him against the door.

"How did you get in here, and shouldn't you be with Mr Jones?" White Coat asked.

The Doctor looked directly at White Coat, trying to ignore the weapon that was way too close to his hearts. "It's my job to protect you in an emergency, and Mr Jones is indisposed," he said, putting what he hoped was the right amount of indifference into his voice.

White Coat looked directly at the Doctor, intently studying his face. "Yes, I can see you've got acquainted," he said, reaching out and wiping away a trickle of drying blood from the Doctor's mouth." I hope you haven't broken him, he's not a toy. I can't just glue him back together."

The Doctor flinched, half acting, half in a deep seated fear of the man or clone in front of him.

"Ah, you do remember then. I thought for a moment I saw something in your eyes. You can put your weapon away soldier, he's just found a weakness in my security. Now, perhaps you can accompany me and sort out this problem on Sub-level Six."

*************************

The Doctor had no choice but to go with White Coat, he'd seen thing over his shoulder that he really should be having a closer look at.

Instead he was pushing his way through a group of guards trying to hold back something that was trying to get out of an elevator.

He'd pushed White Coat to the back of the crowd, although he really just wanted to feed him to whatever the thing was.

"Out of my way," he snarled, grabbing a blade from one of the guards.

He didn't want to kill the thing in front of him, but the sounds coming from it were to his mind sounds of agony, not anger. See it as a mercy killing he said to himself, as he launched himself at the creature, burying the knife in what he hoped was a vital spot.

The creature let out an ear-splitting screech, and grey ichor sprayed itself over the Doctor's face. He hoped it hadn't suffer too much, it must have been one of White Coat's experiments, but somewhere deep inside, a little part of him thrilled at the danger.

That he decided was not a good thing, it was possible that the implant was starting to over power his control of it. In that case, time was running short and soon his act wouldn't be an act, it would be real, and that would be a disaster on a scale, well it would be off any scale.

White Coat pushed his way through the guards, and approached the Doctor, who was breathing heavily, glistening with sweat and ichor.

"Well done, this however is a bigger problem than I thought. That shouldn't have escaped, Sub-Level Six and below needs an encrypted card to gain entrance. Only myself and Mr Simmons have such a card, which means…"

"That there's still someone out there who shouldn't be," the Doctor finished White Coat's sentence as he wiped ichor and viscera off the blade.

"Quite so, I think it's time we had a word with Captain Harkness. Oh, and please fetch Mr Jones."

****************************

The Doctor walked back towards the rooms where he'd left Ianto. He stopped when he felt another twinge in the area where the implant had been placed, this was so not good.

He suddenly doubled over, holding his head. "No, no, no, not yet, Rassilon, no!" he cried.

Black fire spread through his head and through his veins, and he heard an echoing maniacal laugh inside his mind, and then he knew nothing.

********************************

Ianto had come too about twenty minutes ago, but was too groggy to get up. He did however jump when the door burst open, and the Doctor stalked in.

He was up in an instant, and crouched defensively on one side of the bed.

"You knocked me out, you bastard," he growled at the Doctor, who was leaning against the bedroom door.

"Did I, sorry about that. I'll try not to be so rough next time. Unless you like it that way?" he said the suggestion in his voice made Ianto shiver.

"Maybe," he said.

"Anyway, no time for playing, we have some question to ask Captain Harkness. But maybe later," he said his eyes glittering black.

*********************************

Jack looked up when the other occupants of the cell began to move about agitatedly. They'd only just settled after the alarm that rang through the cells. He stood up when he saw the reason for their agitation.

White Coat, several guards, and Jack noticed the Doctor and Ianto entered the cell level.

No-one but Martha and Gwen protested when Jack was dragged out by the guards, and shoved in an empty cell with the Doctor, Ianto and White Coat and the guards.

White Coat gestured for Jack to sit.

"No, thanks, I'll stand, " he said. He flicked at glance at the Doctor, and a cold feeling of unease ran through him.

There was something not right about the way the Doctor was staring at him, it wasn't the same way he'd flicked that look at him in the operating room, and his feeling of unease turned to ice cold fear in his blood.

Dear god, he was back and for real this time!

"Very well," White Coat said. "It's no matter to me, just answers my question and this will be short and painless. Tell me, who else is working with you, apart from the two ladies?"

"I wouldn't tell you, even if there was," he said.

"Really captain, I thought we could be civilised about this. Gentlemen, would you care to encourage the good captain," White Coat said to the guards.

************************

Jack wiped the blood from his nose, and tried to hold his broken ribs.

"That isn't going to work," the Doctor suddenly said. "He's trained to tolerate physical pain."

White Coat gestured to the two guards, who stepped back. "Tell me then, what do you suggest?"

The Doctor stepped forward. "I have a way, not so physical, but definitely as painful, hold him," he said to the guards.

The guards looked at White Coat who nodded, and they grabbed Jack and forced him to his knees.

The Doctor approached Jack, placed his hands on either side of Jack's head.

"This is going to hurt, but I won't apologise," he said.

Jack looked directly into the Doctor's eyes, and what he saw was nothing. There was nothing but soulless black, no pity, no remorse, just the darkness of madness. Then he felt nothing but pain, and he cried out as his mind was invaded.

*********************

"Hello, Captain," the Doctor's voice rang out inside his mind. "Can't say it's a pleasure meeting you again, you did rather spoil my party last time."

"You won't be staying long, not if I can help it," Jack said defiantly.

"I don't think you have any say in it, not this time. I intend to stay and this time there'll be no coming back, not for him anyway. But enough of the small talk, now who has that card?"

***********************

The Doctor let go of Jack's head, and didn't give him a second glance as he collapsed on the floor. He turned to face White Coat.

"It's one of your androids, it's called Maria."

"Her, I knew I should have dismantled her straight away. She must still be down on the Sub-Levels," White Coat growled. "Doctor, take Mr Jones, and do what you do best, find her, stop her anyway you can."

The Doctor nodded, and he took one last look at Jack, before he dragged Ianto out of the cell.

Then Jack's view of them was blocked by the guards again.

"Now Captain Harkness, there are things I need to know," and the guards closed in on him again.

****************************

Maria stepped out from her hiding place, it had gone quiet. She guessed the creature she'd released had been killed. She started to make her way back up to the cell level, the thing she was planning to do next needed the expertise of a soldier, and the best soldier she knew was Jack.

She panicked when she heard the elevator doors open, and she ducked into an open door, and cowered as a troop of guards marched past.

She smiled, those guards were in for a surprise when they reached the next level. She left her hiding place, and as the doors shut on her elevator, another one opened. So she never saw the two men step out of the elevator and head in the direction of the android storage level.

************************

Jack didn't show how much pain he was in, he wasn't going to give them a weak point to concentrate on.

"Enough, this is getting nowhere," White Coat said. "Leave him, I have other work to do. You two join the others. We'll speak again, Captain," he said and left the cell and the prison level.

Jack let out a pain filled groan and tried to climb onto he single cot, his muscles protesting at the slightest movement.

"Jack, are you okay," he heard someone say.

He thought it was perhaps Gwen or Martha, and he twisted painfully around. He was shocked to see it was Maria, and that she was opening his cell door. "Maria, what are you doing here, it's not safe," he said through bloodied lips.

"I can get you out of here, your friends too, but you have to help me first," Maria said.

She moved closer to Jack, but he was looking behind her, a look of horror on his face. A shadow fell across her and Jack. She let out a frightened squeak as a hand wrapped itself around her neck.

"Hello, little android," a voice hissed, and raised a device to her head.

"No! Ianto, don't," Jack cried, unable to reach her in time, as the device sparked against Maria's head.

She collapsed like a puppet, sparks fizzing from her eyes, and Ianto let go of her.

"Stupid little android," he hissed and started to drag her body out of the cell.

He started moving back into Jack's cell, when the sound of gunfire distracted him. Jack took his chance, and pushed his pain filled body off the cot and straight for Ianto!

**Chapter Seventeen**

Jack caught Ianto at shoulder height, and they barrelled into the opposite cell. Ianto's head cracked against the metal, but he didn't go down, as Jack had expected him to.

He threw Jack off himself and used the metal bars to pull himself up. "Harkness, I'm so going to kill you," he snarled.

"I don't think so," a voice said behind him.

Ianto whirled round, and was met by a right hook from Gwen. This time Ianto did go down, and he didn't move.

Jack pulled himself into a sitting position. "How did you?" he said, once he could speak.

Gwen glanced behind him; he turned and saw that Maria was no longer lying by the cell door. She was laying in a crumpled heap by Martha and Gwen's cell, sparks now coming from her whole body.

Jack crawled over to her and sat down beside her. "Maria?" he said quietly.

She stirred, causing sparks to run across her body. She turned to face Jack, causing yet more sparks.

"Did I help?" she asked in a faint voice, her face contorted in pain.

"Don't try to speak," he replied. "You did great. We can get you out of here, fix you up."

"No, you can't," she gasped as a trail of blue light arced across he body. "Neural disruptor, fried my command circuit, complete system failure, haven't got long."

She held up the gold card she'd taken from Jack. "Take this…access to sub-levels...there's a way out...take your friends and go," her words broken by sparks and electric blue light.

"I can't leave you," Jack said.

"Too late…you have to save the Doctor...the disruptor…stops the inhibitor... hurry... be too late soon...hurry."

"Jack, we don't know where the sub-levels are!" Gwen said.

Jack turned back to Maria, but she was gone, the blue light and sparks fading from her body.

"I'm sorry," he said, reached over, closed her eyes and took the card from her lifeless hand.

"How are we going to find them now?" Martha said.

*******************

The guard shifted nervously, the sounds of gunfire were moving closer, and now there were sounds coming form the cell block. He was unsure of which way to move, when the door to the cells burst open.

He would have been washed away in angry tidal wave of humanity, if a pair of hands hadn't pulled him out of the way.

Jack hauled the guard right up to his face. "Show me the entrance to the sub-level, or I'll leave you to your former prisoners."

The guard looked at Jack and then over at the pack of humans, who looked very much like they would rip him to shreds. He nodded and Jack released him.

Jack turned and faced the mob that was only just being held back by Gwen and Martha.

"Do you want to get out of here?"

The group looked at each other and they all nodded.

"Good, because I have the key, and this guard is going to show us the way, so no matter how much you want to rip him to pieces, you can't, understood."

There where a few murmurs of dissent but most were in agreement.

"Okay," Jack said, and turned back to the guard. "Show us."

***************************

White Coat had heard the sounds of gunfire, and knew that things could be getting out of hand. Scowling he left the experiment he was doing and moved over to his desk, and spoke into his comm.

"Can somebody please tell me why this has not been dealt with yet?!"

A crackly answer came over the speaker. "Sir, the prisoners on Sub-Level Seven have escaped, and they're armed, we're outnumbered three to one!"

"Where is the Doctor?"

"Don't know, sir, we haven't seen him since he entered the android cell area!"

"And Mr Jones?"

"Him neither, sir, both are out of radio contact! Hold that line, I said hold!" the voice shouted, and was lost in a crackle of gunfire.

White Coat thumped the desk in irritation. "Again, it seems I have to sort it out myself. I'm beginning to wonder if you really are worth the trouble, Doctor."

*************************

Jack pushed the guard in front of him as they stepped out of the elevator. He'd left Gwen and Martha at the top to organise the ferrying of the group down. It had taken several precious minutes to bring every one down, but now they were making their way down a deserted corridor, that showed signs of a recent battle.

The corridor was eerily quiet, there were no bodies, nothing, like something had spirited them away. But there was a smell, it was a smell Jack recognised and it didn't bode well, a very big and slimy something was on the loose.

"Which way is the emergency exit?" Jack hissed.

The guard pointed towards the left, but didn't move, and dug his heels in when Jack tried to push him forward.

"I ain't going no further, there's things down there you can't believe," and dug his heels in more when Jack tried once again tried to push him forward.

Jack let out a frustrated sigh."Fine," he said and shoved him back towards the group. "Make sure he doesn't run. Gwen, my guess is the way out is that way, take Martha and the rest and head for it."

He held out the card to her, which she took reluctantly. "You're going after the Doctor," she said quietly.

"I have to, I can't leave him like this." He held up the small device he had taken of Ianto.

"I'll come with you," Martha said as she came up to stand next to Gwen.

"No, someone has to help Ianto, get the hell out of here, contact UNIT, they'll know what to do."

Both women were about to argue, but he cut them off with a look.

"Go, that's an order, from your commanding officer. Take Ianto and the others and go, don't turn back, no matter what you hear or think you hear, understood."

Both of then reluctantly agreed and bgan rounding up the group of prisoners, two who were carrying Ianto, and headed in the direction the guard had pointed, not looking back as Jack moved back the way they had come.

*****************************

The corridor the Doctor was stalking down was smokey, and stank of fear and death. He was heading back towards the cell area, having not heard from Ianto for a while. He'd turned his comm off after a very irate White Coat had been buzzing in his ear. That was a particularly annoying insect he would have to eradicate, in due time. First he wanted to find Ianto, then he was going to have fun, ripping this place apart, no-one was going to give him orders.

He crashed through the cell block door, to find empty cells, no Ianto, but the body of Maria.

"Android," he hissed, walking over to her, and roughly dragging her away from the bars. It was obvious that she was, no, it was destroyed.

"But, there may still be a little left in the power cells," he said to himself, and began undressing her. He ripped open a panel on her back and twisted together several wires.

There was a crackle of energy and several sparks arced across the androids body.

"That's it , wakey, wakey," he said as Maria slowly opened her eyes, then they widened in horror. "Hello, little girl," he said and reached for a wire.

***********************

Jack hadn't had much luck in finding the Doctor, all he'd done had run into either the aftermath of a battle or into the middle of a running one. He'd skirted round most of it, trying his best to avoid struggling androids, humans and guards. Occasionally he heard a scream that was not caused by gunfire, but was caused by copious amounts of teeth, the thing that had been in the disposal room was getting closer.

Hurrying past several struggling groups, he found his way barred by a full scale battle. This time it looked like he couldn't avoid fighting.

He was grappling with one of White Coat's guards, and was just getting the upper hand, when a voice bellowed out from the end of the corridor.

***************  
The Doctor had finally got bored of trying to get more information out of the android, and ripped out her power cells, and watched impassively as she sparked and finally began to burn.

"Thank you, Maria, I'm sure you can be recycled as a can opener," he sneered.

Now he was heading back towards the sub-levels. He was about to step into the elevator when a voice rang out, one that grated on his nerves.

"What the hell is going on, why aren't you with Mr Jones and sorting out this debacle!" White Coat bellowed as he strode towards the Doctor.

The Doctor had to force the sneer from his face as White Coat approached and stood almost face to face with the Doctor.

"Why are you still up here, you should be down below finding that android, finding the pass card," he said, every word punctuated by his finger, which was poking the Doctor in the chest.

The Doctor looked at the face of his antagoniser and finally retaliated. He grabbed hold of the hand that belonged to the finger, wrapped his hand round it and squeezed, and kept squeezing until he felt bones crunching under his grip, and White Coat let out a cry of pain and indignation.

"Let go of me, that's an order!" White Coat gasped, eyes wide in disbelief and pain.

The Doctor responded by increasing the pressure on White Coat's hand.

"You do not tell me what to do. I'm a Time Lord, you take orders from me," he snarled, and grabbing White Coat's arm, he threw him away, watching him land in a crumpled heap a few yards away.

"You can wait, I have unfinished business with Captain Harkness."

**************************

Jack whirled round at the sound of that voice, and saw the figure advancing towards him, cutting his way through androids and humans alike.

"Harkness!" the figure snarled, and launched himself at Jack.

**Chapter Eighteen**

Jack reacted instinctively as the Doctor crashed into him, his blood still on fire from the previous fight. He rolled with the Doctor's weight, sending him crashing into the wall, hoping it would give him time to at least get up. But the Doctor was cat-like in his reactions and was up on his feet and lunging for Jack, before he had time to right himself.

The two of them went down, the Doctor trying to get his hands round Jack's throat.

"Harkness!" he hissed as Jack struggled to keep the Doctor's hands away from his throat. "Why can't you ever stay dead!"

"Because," Jack gasped, as he slowly pushed the Doctor back. "I'm a stubborn son of a bitch, who won't let the psycho part of his friend win!"

With a huge effort he heaved the Doctor off him and used the precious seconds to roll away and scrabble up. He felt inside his coat pocket, feeling the cold metal of the neural disruptor against his hand. He knew he would only get one shot; the Doctor wouldn't fall for it again.

The two protagonists stood facing each other, a few feet apart, both breathing heavily, the sounds of the battle raging around them.

"One question before I kill you again, Harkness," the Doctor snarled. "Where is Mr Jones?"

Jack smiled inwardly; there was his chance, the chance to get close enough to use the disruptor, without having to use physical force. "Well, there's something I know, and you don't," he said, as lightly as he could.

The Doctor took a step forward. "Tell me, Harkness, or I'll have to turn your mind to soup."

Jack raised an eyebrow in return to the threat. "Do you think you'll get an answer, I've had time to strengthen my psychic barriers. So wanna try your luck?"

The Doctor gave him a look that said 'insect'. "Big words for an ape, but I really don't have the time. I guess we'll have to do it the hard way," he snarled.

*******************

Gwen herded the group down the dimly lit corridor. She was trying her best to keep her eyes on the group of former prisoners, the guard, and the two who were carrying the still unconscious Ianto.

She looked at Martha, who was trying her best to hide the pain from her wrist and her recent lumbar puncture.

Her thoughts turned to Jack and how he was dealing with the Doctor. All she wanted was to go back, despite Jack's orders. If she had to, she would do what Jack couldn't, blinded by his affection for the Doctor, unable to see the reality of the situation.

She was so lost in thought she almost ran into the back of the group, who had stopped.

She pushed her way to the front, there was an exit alright, but it was blocked by a heavy girder that had fallen across the door, and there were signs of an explosion. To add to the consternation, there was a cry of alarm form the two who where carrying Ianto.

He was awake, and he was angry.

He lashed out at the nearest person and caught them with a bone cracking blow. The crowd backed away, leaving a clear circle around him.

He turned in a circle, and saw Martha. "Bitch!" he snarled and reached for her, murder in his eyes.

There was the crack of gunfire and he staggered, blood seeping through the shoulder of his jacket. He turned in surprise and looked at Gwen, gun held out in front of her, barrel still smoking.

"I'm sorry," she said.

Ianto blinked, looked at her. "Gwen?" he said, falling to her knees, his face and voice showing his shock.

The group moved back even more, as if sensing the gravitas of the moment.

Gwen looked straight into Ianto's eyes, and she saw, not the crazed psychopath of earlier, but the Ianto she knew. She saw the look in his eyes, that one question boring into her….why?

Gwen went to step forward when a cry of terror rang out from the rear of the group.

She turned round and saw something she really didn't want to see, and it was bearing down on the group.

*********************************

Jack was locked in a kill or be killed struggle with the Doctor. He'd managed to press him against the wall, and was now trying to hold him with one arm, whilst trying to retrieve the disruptor with the other hand.

He'd just succeeded in grabbing hold of the disruptor when the Doctor flinched, as if he'd heard a gun shot nearby.

"No!" he gasped. "No, no!" He pushed against Jack, using his full strength this time.

Jack felt and heard himself connect with the wall. Dazed, he tried to stand straight, but was almost floored by a blow from the Doctor.

The Doctor stepped right up to Jack, grabbed him by his coat lapels, and pulled him right up to his face.

"This isn't over yet, another time," he snarled, and let go of Jack, turned and took off at a run, in the direction that Gwen and the others had gone.

Jack took a step forward, but a wave of dizziness and nausea stopped him dead. He felt a trickle of something down his neck, and when he took his hand away from feeling it, it was slick with blood, so not good.

Shaking his head, trying to ignore the pain now beginning to make its presence felt, he forced himself to straighten and went after the Doctor.

*************************

Gwen stared in horror as the white mist engulfed another person, their scream cut off before it had chance to leave the person's mouth, leaving a frozen corpse to fall to the ground, and then panic caught the group, and chaos reigned.

Gwen fought her way towards Martha, who was trying to staunch the blood coming from Ianto's shoulder, made more difficult by her injured hand.

"We have to move, we can't help these people, that thing's going to kill us all," she said urgently.

Martha looked at Gwen and then at Ianto, then back at the panic stricken group, whose screams were now filling the air.

"I know," she said.

Without another word, she helped Gwen pick Ianto up, one arm on her shoulder, and the other on Gwen's. They moved off as quickly as they could, trying to shut out the screams from the people they left behind.

They made their way slowly down the corridor, towards the bank of elevators, trying to see through the pall of smoke that was filling the air.

They stopped when they saw a figure emerging from the smoke. Gwen tensed, and Martha let out a gasp of fear.

"Ladies," a voice said, and the Doctor stepped out of the smoke.

**Chapter Nineteen**

The Doctor had seen the trio before they'd seen him; he'd also seen the semi-conscious figure of Ianto, blood coming from his shoulder. He knew somehow that it was Gwen that had shot him, and for that she would suffer the most before he killed her.

He also heard the screams of the others, knew they were dying in some awful way, but he ignored them, focused as he was on the trio in front of him.

As he emerged from the smoke, his eyes locked onto Gwen, who was aiming her gun at him.

"Don't move," she said shakily, tightening her grip on her gun.

The Doctor pulled a mock scared face and continued walking. "Or what, you'll shoot me and what would that do to him. Do you think he'd forgive you?"

Gwen swallowed and tightened her grip more as the Doctor advanced, not stopping until her gun was pressed against his chest. She tried not to look into his eyes, but she couldn't resist, they were obsidian black and hypnotic.

"You really don't want to shoot me. In fact, it's Miss Jones here you really want to shoot. After all, she's already thinking about killing you."

His voice was silky, persuasive, tempting, and believable. She tried to look away, but she found herself falling into those eyes. She shrugged off Ianto's arm, her eyes never leaving the Doctor's. She suddenly turned and aimed her gun at Martha, who had dropped Ianto.

"You'd kill me?" she said, eyes narrowing.

Martha looked at Gwen, then at the Doctor. "Whatever you're doing, it won't work," she said defiantly.

"Really, it seems to be working at the moment. Now, if you'll kindly step away from Mr Jones, we'll be leaving."

Martha carefully moved away from Ianto, who was finally starting to come round. She kept her eyes on Gwen, who was still aiming her gun at her.

She flicked a glance at the Doctor, trying not to shudder at the blackness of his eyes. She thought she saw something moving in the smoke. Then she saw what it was, she forgot about Gwen, the gun, the Doctor and screamed.

*******************

Martha's scream broke the Doctor's spell over Gwen; she whirled round and saw the thing bearing down on the Doctor.

She raised her gun again, causing the Doctor to dive to the floor in surprised alarm, scrabbling into a defensive crouch when she began firing, not at him, but behind him.

Gwen kept firing into what she hoped was the head of the thing, but it seemed unaffected. It hissed its annoyance and lunged for Gwen, and its multiple jaws snapped at her as she dived to her right. She almost gagged on the fetid stench that came from those open jaws. She emptied what was left of her bullets into its side, hoping that it would at least slow it down.

The creature, it looked like a worm, she thought, thudded to a halt and began turning in on itself, not towards her, but towards Martha, who was flat against the wall.

Out the corner of her eye she could see the Doctor; he was edging his way, not towards Martha, but towards Ianto. She watched in horror as he dragged Ianto away from the worm, hooked one of Ianto's arms over his shoulder, and stood up.

"I'd love to stay and watch, ladies, but I think it's time for us to be leaving, have fun," he grinned.

Gwen couldn't believe he was abandoning her and Martha, but that grin only held a wicked amusement at their plight.

"You can't!" she cried after him as he moved down the corridor, and then the hiss of the worm drew her whole attention.

***************************

Jack staggered out of the elevator, his head still spinning, still trying to focus his eyes. Black acrid smoke filled his lungs, stung his eyes. The tears seemed to help his sight focus, and through the smoke he could see bodies, way too many bodies, and they were frozen.

"No, it can't be here," he whispered as he stepped over the bodies of people he recognised as the prisoners from the cells.

Then he heard a woman's scream, and multiple gun-shots, and then an all too familiar hissing. This he thought was going from bad to worse, now the worm form the disposal room was here.

The woman's scream sounded again.

His blood ran cold. He recognised that scream; it was Martha.

"Martha!" he yelled, and fighting down his dizziness, he set off at a run.

***************************

The Doctor half-carried, half-dragged Ianto along the corridor, until he reached a place that wasn't as smoke filled. He gently propped Ianto against the wall, and wiped the soot and grime from his face.

Ianto stirred against his touch and began to open his eyes.

"That's it, pretty boy, you need to wake up," he said gently.

Ianto's eyes opened fully, and when he saw the Doctor, only a few inches from his face, he recoiled in panic.

The Doctor frowned as if puzzled by Ianto's reaction, and then his face hardened. "Those bitches got to you, didn't they, broke your conditioning." He stood up and stepped away from Ianto, his face set in a cold mask.

"Fine, I don't need you anyway, stay here and die with the rest of them," he snarled.

He turned away from Ianto. "Time to leave this place, but first there's a score to settle."

********************

White Coat was hurriedly packing away his papers. He'd placed several glass phials inside a small portable cryo-container, at least this part of the plan had been a success, and he had the power source. He still regretted not being able to take the Doctor with him, but he was far too much of a lose cannon, one that would have to be eliminated.

He stepped out of his laboratory, and straight into the waiting figure of the Doctor.

"Hello again," he hissed, and reached for him.

*************************

Jack ran towards the sounds of the hissing and the screaming. He had to pull up quickly as he saw something ahead, something that was much worse than the worm.

A white cloud was slowly advancing down the corridor, towards the massive bulk of the worm. This he thought was something he had to avoid, and he slowly advanced up the corridor.

**********************

Gwen watched as the worm advanced on Martha. It kept stopping and weaving its head side to side, then she realised it couldn't see Martha, it was listening for her. She carefully bent down and removed one of her shoes, and was about to throw it, when something caused the worm to rear up, hissing not in annoyance, but in agony.

Then she saw why. The white cloud had started to engulf the worm, and its lower end was starting to freeze as it sucked the heat from it.

Gwen seized her chance, and dashed under the rearing body of the worm, she grabbed Martha and pulled her away from the wall, and away from the writhing creature.

The worm's hissing turned to screeches of agony as more of its body was devoured. Both Gwen and Martha cried out as a figure appeared suddenly. It was Jack.

"Move!" he yelled, shoved them in front of him, away from the struggle, and towards the route the Doctor had taken.

They didn't stop running until they came across Ianto, who was trying to walk towards the elevators, holding his shoulder.

"Ianto!" Gwen cried, thankful that he was still alive.

Ianto looked round in surprise, and then relief flooded over his face. "Thank god, I thought he's killed you," he said, and would have hit the floor if Jack hadn't reacted quickly and caught him.

"Ianto, where's the Doctor?" Jack asked as he lowered him to the floor.

Ianto winced as Martha examined his shoulder. "He left me, said something about settling a score."

Jack stood up. "He's gone after White Coat." He turned to Gwen, who was standing a little way back, guilt about shooting Ianto keeping her away. "Gwen, take Martha and Ianto, use the other elevator, get them out."

He handed her the white pass card, but kept the gold. "This will get you to the surface, there must be transport above."

Gwen looked at Jack, wide eyed. "You're not coming?"

"No, I have to find the Doctor. I have to try and save him."

He moved over to the elevators, swiped the card and the door pinged open, only just audible over the sounds of the struggle still going on.

"Go, before that thing finishes feeding," he said, and then the doors closed.

**Chapter Twenty**

Jack kept to the back of the elevator as the doors opened. He was expecting carnage, but found the corridor empty and pristine clean. It looked like neither the battle nor the two nightmarish creatures had reached this level.

He was undecided as to which way he should go when the sounds of things being trashed gave him a clue as to where the Doctor was.

He approached the door that led to White Coat's labs slowly and cautiously. He peered through the only window, but could see nothing, but the noise was definitely coming from there.

He carefully ran the card through the lock, and hoped the door didn't buzz too noisily when it opened. He pushed the door slowly open, and the sounds became much clear.

He could hear the Doctor in one of the rooms, his voice interspersed with things being thrown.

"Where is it!?" he was yelling, and something else was thrown to the floor.

Jack edged his way towards the room he heard the shouting from; he was nearly at the door when someone crawled out of the room.

It was White Coat, a bloodied and bruised White Coat. Jack tensed as he looked up and saw him, expecting him to call out to the Doctor. Instead he began mouthing something to Jack, who had to crouch down to hear what he was saying.

"You have to stop him, he's out of control. Can't let him find the source," he whispered.

Jack looked at White Coat, but didn't help him. He leant closer to him, almost until his mouth was touching White Coat's bloodied ear.

"I'm going to let you live, for now, but if you're still here when I come back, I'll kill you myself," he whispered.

He stood up and walked into the room White Coat had crawled out of. He felt in his coat pocket, feeling the cold metal of the disruptor against his hand. He didn't really want to use it, as he had no idea of what damage it may do, but he couldn't see any other choice.

***************************

The Doctor had his back to the door; he was busy trying to take a cryo-cannister to pieces, with the aid of a large piece of bloodied metal.

Jack hoped he would be distracted enough to leave his approach unnoticed, but the Doctor froze in mid-raising of the piece of metal.

Jack knew he'd lost the advantage and tightening his grip on the disruptor, he closed the gap at speed.

The Doctor had only half-turned when Jack tackled him, sending both of then crashing into the canister, which then decided to spill its contents. Liquid nitrogen poured out in a freezing mist, and just touched the Doctor's hand.

He let out a cry of pain as the liquid burnt and froze his skin at the same time.

Jack, realising he had the advantage once more, brought the disruptor as near as he dared to the Doctor's head, and pressed the switch.

The effect was instantaneous, and the Doctor stiffened beneath him. His whole body went rigid, as blue light played across his body, sparks emanating from a behind one of his ears.

As quickly as he had gone rigid, the Doctor relaxed, in fact his whole body was like a rag doll.

Jack threw the disruptor away in revulsion, and took the limp body of his friend in his arms. He placed his ear against the Doctor's chest, and a chill went through his blood, there was no heart beat.

"No, no, come on, start beating again," he whispered, but the hearts didn't answer. Panic began rising unbidden in his gut, had he killed him.

He placed his ear against his chest once more, and this time he heard something, it was only a single beat, faint but there. To Jack it was like a beacon on a hillside, a small light of hope.

He tensed when he heard footsteps behind him. He carefully laid the Doctor on the floor, and whirled round. He only relaxed when he saw it was Gwen, but annoyance replaced his relief.

"I told you to get Martha and Ianto out."

Gwen gave him a 'when have I ever listened to you' look. "They're safe, but I had to come back, this place is about to blow its top. I think someone's triggered a self-destruct."

Jack frowned and stepped out of the room. "White Coat," he snarled

He turned back to Gwen. "Fine, then we'd better get going." He carefully picked the Doctor up, and then he spotted the canister, some files and what looked like a containment box.

"Bring those with us," he said and walked out of the room, carrying the still floppy Doctor.

He waited for Gwen to gather the objects, and they both stepped into the elevator. As the door closed, a low distant rumble filled the air, and the floor of the elevator vibrated. Something had exploded, and violently.

*****************

They stepped out into the frozen waste above; they looked up as something roared into the sky. A small craft shot into the sky and disappeared towards the north.

"White Coat, that slimy bastard's got away," Jack growled. He turned his attention back to Gwen. "Where's our transport."

"It's this way," she said, pointing to a metal hanger.

Jack followed her, and a smile crossed his face. "I haven't flown one of these since the Agency."

*********************

Minutes later, a sleek craft was speeding its way across the clear sky, leaving a vapour trail, one that mixed with the black smoke now pouring out of the open elevator.

There was another distant rumble, and the snow seemed to shift, rising like a bubble in a mud pool, and then suddenly popping, caving in, leaving a crater in its place. The snow settled and then it shifted again, and something appeared out of the snow, something very worm-like and with many mouths. It slithered away from the crater, not blindly finding its way this time, but moving with a purpose, like a puppet being pulled by its puppeteer.

**************************

Jack landed the craft as near to base camp as he could, well what as left of the base camp. Something or someone had done a very good job of destroying it.

"Dammit," he said as he examined the last of the light aircraft. "They've all been sabotaged."

Gwen let out a sigh. "Can't you use the TARDIS, it's only about five miles that way."

"No, I don't think she'll let us in, not while he's not at home," Jack said, looking at the still out of it Doctor.

"Can't we use that thing?" she said, pointing at the craft.

"No, it's only a short rang transport, more you city hopper bus. I'll have to try and fix one of the planes. Help Martha get Ianto and the Doctor into the main building. Here take these," he said, tossing her his handcuffs.

She looked at them, frowning.

"For the Doctor, in case he still inclining to My Hyde."

She nodded and moved away,leaving Jack to his work.

************************

The Doctor's head felt like it had been stuck in a Tessler machine, and they'd ramped it up to maximum. He could also feel the melted control chip inside his head; something had caused it to melt. Whatever it was, he was thankful, glad that his worse half was safely locked away, as it should be.

He could also feel the handcuffs that were tight against his wrists. He shifted, in the hope of making them less uncomfortable.

His movement caught Gwen's attention, and she moved away from Martha, who was still attending to Ianto.

She stopped just out of any possible reach, and stared hard into the Doctor's eyes, searching for something. She seemed to relax a little when she saw something she liked.

"It's nice to have you, the proper you back," she said.

The Doctor looked at her, and then something popped into his memory. He looked directly at her, his eyes glittering in the lamp light.

"Gwen, would you really have shot me?"

Gwen was taken aback by the directness of the question; one she felt deserved a direct answer. "If I'd had to, yes, no one person is more import that the rest of the group."

The Doctor gave her a small smile. "Good, glad to hear it. Glad someone's got their head on straight. I don't suppose you have the keys to these things?" he asked.

"No, and even if I did, I wouldn't take them off, not yet."

The Doctor sighed, looked round the room, and his eyes lit on Martha and Ianto. "How are they?" he said.

"Not your best friends at the moment, best to stay away," Gwen said.

"Where's Jack?"

"Trying to fix one of the planes."

"I could help."

Gwen shook her head. "Sorry."

"Fine, at least show me what's in that lot," he nodded towards the little pile in the corner.

Gwen shook her head. "Not yet."

Frustrated by, but understanding her mistrust he leant back, trying to stop the cuffs digging into his wrists.

He was about to shift a little more when the whole building suddenly shifted!

**Chapter Twenty One**

Jack had his head stuck inside the mess that was the engine of the only plane that looked usable. He was about to attack it with a wrench, when he felt the ground shift beneath his feet.

He jerked up, banging his head. He forgot his pain when he saw something he wished he hadn't: the snow creature was back!

The snow was churning, and was heading for the building the others were in.

Dropping the wrench, he started sprinting after the churning snow, acutely aware that it was outpacing him. He saw the snow suddenly stop, and there was few seconds of deadly silence, and then as he ran towards it, the whole building shuddered and began to shift downwards.

***************

Gwen lost her balance and nearly fell into Martha, who was trying to steady Ianto. She saw the Doctor, who had been unable to gain any purchase slide across the floor, but had managed to halt his progress by painfully planting his feet against a table.

"Gwen!" he yelled as the building shifted again, this time to the right. "Gwen, you have to get me out of these handcuffs!"

Gwen managed to get herself upright, using the wall to steady herself as the building lurched again.

"Gwen!" the Doctor yelled again. "My sonic, you have to get me out of these!"

Gwen knew she had to take the risk, either way they could be dead. She left the relative safety of the wall, and went for Jack's backpack.

She almost had her fingers on it when the building shifted downwards, causing the floor to move. She landed painfully on her knees, and found herself inches away from the backpack.

She quickly grabbed it, and retrieved the screwdriver, and began crawling across the shifting floor, towards the Doctor.

She only made it halfway across when there was an almighty crack, and the floor of the building started to splinter and come apart. She tumbled backwards and hit the wall, letting out a cry of pain as her head connected with the wall.

*******************

The Doctor braced himself against the table and watched Gwen crawl towards him. The floor in front of him gave an ear-splitting crack, and the floor began to move, coming apart in a spray of splinters. He saw Gwen slide back, and connect painfully with the wall.

His eyes widened in horror when he saw snow starting to seep through the crack. He'd forgotten about he snow creature, what with all that had happened in the last three or four days. It must have survived the collapse of the city somehow, and it must be pretty hungry by now.

He, however, had no intention of letting himself or the others become its next meal. "Gwen!" he called again, raising his voice to be heard over the splintering floor.

"Gwen, you have to get to me!" he yelled. He could feel the chill of the snow, as more of the creature seeped through. It wouldn't be long before it was able to coalesce into its predatory shape, and then his job would be even harder.

He looked up when something thudded on the roof. He panicked slightly. Were they already beneath the snow and the roof about to collapse?

He jerked when he felt hands against his wrists: Gwen! He heard the welcoming buzz of the sonic, and felt the handcuffs fall away.

He eyed the pile of snow, that was still growing, and he thought he saw the beginnings of a set of claws.

The building suddenly shifted again, and his attention was suddenly focused on the screams of panic coming from Gwen and Martha. He moved with the shifting of the floor, regained his equilibrium, and reached out a hand to Gwen.

"C'mon, we have to get to the others! That thing isn't going to stop, and it's very hungry!"

**********************

Gwen hesitated, unsure of whether to trust him.

"Look, if we don't move now, that thing will eat us alive!" the Doctor shouted.

Gwen looked over to where the floor had split, and for the first time could see what the Doctor knew was already there. She could see a now discernable set of claws, and an arm.

Not hesitating anymore, she reached out and grabbed the Doctor's outstretched hand, and allowed him to pull her towards the ever increasing gap and the ever increasing shape of the snow creature.

Without looking again, the Doctor suddenly sprinted, dragging Gwen with him, and leaping over the widening gap, feeling the weight of Gwen, who leapt with him.

************************

They landed awkwardly, feet slipping on the gathering snow. The Doctor shoved Gwen towards Martha and Ianto, who were a far into the corner as they could go. They all jumped when the roof gave way, then a familiar face appeared at the resulting hole.

"Did you call for help?" Jack grinned and held out a hand.

The Doctor wasted no time. He'd glanced over at the snow creature, which was almost fully formed and starting to pull itself through the gap.

"Up, up!" he yelled, helping Gwen lift Martha and then Ianto up towards Jack's outstretched hands.

The building shuddered as the Doctor boosted Gwen towards Jack. The floor gave one last groan, and began to disintegrate.

The Doctor turned just in time to see the snow creature straighten. The gap was big enough for it to stand. It didn't need to climb inside the building, as the floor had virtually collapsed.

With a roar of disapproval at its meal disappearing through the roof, it moved with a speed that belied it's size and reached for the one person remaining.

It swiped razor sharp claws at the figure, but it found only empty space, as it felt itself pulled down sharply.

************************

The Doctor felt the breeze from the claws as they missed his legs by inches, Jack pulling him out of the hole just in time. He leapt off the ruined building, closely followed by Jack.

The sounds from the building were a mixture of the roar of the snow creature, and the hiss of what the Doctor guessed was either the worm or the cloud creature.

He went to step towards the sounds, but was dragged back by Jack. "No way, we're leaving, let them kill each other!" he yelled above the terrible sounds coming from the ruined building, which was now slowly sinking into the snow.

The Doctor took one last look as the building finally sunk beneath the snow, and the ground settled back like nothing had just happened. He looked round when he heard the sputtering of a plane engine.

"C'mon, Doc, time to go!" Jack yelled.

The Doctor sighed, disappointed once more that a unique form of life was destroyed because of human's interference. He turned away from the now settled snow, running towards the taxiing plane, grabbing the open door and hopping in.

"Next stop, the TARDIS," he said as the plane left the ground.

***********************************

The TARDIS materialised inside the storage area of the Hub, and Gwen, Jack and the Doctor helped Martha and Ianto out and up into the med-centre.

The Doctor went to examine Martha's hand, but she pulled it away and not necessarily because of the pain, and shot him a look.

The Doctor stepped away and without saying a word, left the room, disappearing into the Hub's well equipped lab, taking the stuff they'd taken from Cold Runs Deep with him.

"That was uncalled for," Jack said as he wrapped a bandage round Martha's hand. "He didn't hurt you."

Martha looked up at Jack, and then she sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it's just everything came all at once. I suppose he was the nearest target."

Jack smiled. "Sure, he'll know that, but let him stew on it for a while. It might give him something else to think about besides what's happened recently."

The words had only just left his lips, when the Doctor came running into the med- centre, holding a glowing crystal, a look on his face that could only mean more trouble.

"Jack, we have to leave, we have to leave now!"

**TBC in 'Fires of Redemption' **


End file.
